Rise of the Golden Trio
by Translucent Belt Bag
Summary: The Golden Trio are done with being helpless and relying on luck to save them. Together they start training to be better fighters and wizards. Together they will face dangers, uncover Hogwarts secrets, and survive the Goblet of Fire.
1. Chapter 1

**The Golden Trio are done with** **being helpless and relying on luck to save them. Together they start training to be better fighters and wizards. Together they will face dangers, uncover Hogwarts secrets, and survive the Goblet of Fire.**

 **I OWN HARRY POTTER… well I own all seven books anyway… but not the rights…:(**

Playtime Is Over

Harry and Hermione had just done it. They went back in time (illegally, but who really cares about that) and saved Harry's godfather,Sirius Black, from the dementor's kiss. A fate worse than death.

They ran as fast as they could to reach the end of the corridor with the hospital wing entrance. "Okay-I can hear Dumbledore," whispered Hermione tensely. "Come on,Harry!"

Together, they crept down the corridor as quietly as possible. Then, the door opened. Dumbledore's back appeared. "I'm going to lock you in," They heard him saying. " It is five minutes to midnight Miss Granger , three turns should do it. Good luck."

Dumbledore then backed out of the room. But when he pulled out his wand to lock the door, Hermione and Harry ran forward. Dumbledore looked up and gave and gave them a smile under his long, silvery mustache. " Well?" he asked quietly.

"We did it!" said Harry trying to catch his breath. " Sirius is gone, on Buckbeak…"

Dumbledore gave a sigh of relief.

" Well done you two, " Dumbledore paused, listening for any sound inside the hospital wing. " Yes , I think you two have gone. Get inside- I'll lock you in."

Harry and Hermione walked back into the hospital wing. They were the only ones there, apart from Ron who was still unconscious from a dark spell the traitorous rat Peter Pettigrew flung at him. Twelve years the Weasley family took care of him and this was the thanks they get. Their youngest son in the hospital wing.

Harry had half a mind to take back Hermione's time turner and kill the rat himself with his bare hands for causing so much pain for for his godfather and best friend. But decided not to because Hermione would probably hex him to the bed for even thinking it.

However he was brought back to the present when Madam Pomfrey came out of her office. " Did I hear the headmaster leaving? Am I allowed to look after my students now?"

She was in a bad mood so they decided to quickly get back into their beds and accept their chocolate without any fuss. Around the time they were eating their forth piece, the three of them heard an angry scream and footsteps coming in their direction.

It was Professor Snape. He was livid. It was then he started screaming that it HAD to be Harry and Hermione ( but mostly Harry). That they were the ones who freed Sirius Black. The children were pretty much silent throughout the whole ordeal. It was finally when professor Dumbledore said that the two of them were locked in the room that the matter dropped.

Of course Snape , being Snape, hated that he didn't get his way and stormed out of hospital wing like a child. Quickly followed by the Minister of Magic muttering about how the paper was going to tear him apart. ( 'My heart bleeds' Harry thought annoyed.) Finally Dumbledore left after giving a secret smile to Harry and Hermione. Madam Pomfrey huffed angrily about barging into HER domain and disrupting her patients and went back into her office.

Harry and Hermione gave each other an amazed look. "I still can't believe we did it- and got away with it." Hermione whispered in awe.

" Do you think Snape will do something?" Harry said.

" Well, what can he do? Sirius is gone and he already makes class awful for you. What else can he do?"

"Knowing him? Something horrible." Harry quipped.

There conversation was cut short due a moan on the other side of the room.

" Ron." Hermione said as she left her bed walking over to him. Harry followed her. " Ron, Ron-can you hear me?"

" Ugh."Ron moaned " What happened?"

" How much do you remember?" asked Hermione.

" The last thing I remember is Pettigrew hitting me with some spell…" Ron said, struggling to remember. "Before that… before that-" Ron's eyes went wide and he immediately sat up. " Sirius! Sirius is he okay? Lupin turned- and Sirius-"

" Ron he's okay." Harry interrupted while Hermione pushed him back down onto the bed. "I think you should explain." Harry said to Hermione.

While Hermione was telling Ron about the little adventure the two of them just completed, Harry looked out the window and started thinking. Thinking about the last three years and how no matter how much he tried to be "just Harry" , fate was apparently very much against that idea.

First year he had to stop Voldemort from getting the Stone. Second he had to stop past Voldemort from killing students from a basilisk. And this year he had to keep he to make sure Voldemort's servant didn't kill him. Every single year , no matter what he did , he had to solve the problem. It's not like he didn't try to get help but after Mcgonagall dismissed the three of them in first year… and Ginny was slowly dying in second year so there wasn't time to get a (proper) professor. Then there was this year when Ron was dragged by his leg into the Whomping Willow so there was no time to get a professor.

And every year he almost died. Quirrell almost killed him but died before he could. Second year he the basilisk had bitten him. The venom would have killed him if Fawkes (Dumbledore's phoenix ) hadn't saved him. And this year… he would have been kissed by a dementor. He would have been a soulless husk if he didn't go back in time and saved himself.

And for the most part he didn't win because he was Merlin reborn, he won because he was lucky. The amount of times he was attacked at the "safest place in all of England" was far too high... And that's when he remembered Trelawney's prediction. He forgot about all about it when Hermione and Ron told him Buckbeak lost the trial. But looking back on what she said… the first part came true. Voldemort's servant did reveal himself tonight. But if the first part came true… doesn't that mean Pettigrew would- would somehow bring Voldemort back?

Harry suddenly went pale a that thought. He tried shaking it off. Tried calming himself down by convincing himself that Pettigrew didn't have the brains or the power to do so…

But then, the other part of him was saying that Pettigrew not only managed to convince everyone on the Light side that he was on there side while being a double agent. But, also was able to frame Sirius when cornered and hide from everyone who posed a threat to his safety for twelve years.

All in all he wasn't feeling any better with his current line of thinking and mentally slapped himself to focus. He needed a plan. ' Okay Potter,' he thought to himself ' What do you know? You know that Voldemort is always going to come after you because he is bloody obsessed. Pettigrew escaped and will most likely run to Voldemort to protect him from Sirius and Professor Lupin. Pettigrew would either help or ,at the very least, speed along the process. When Voldemort does come back he will try to kill you. So what's the plan?' Harry didn't have to think hard. The answer was pretty obvious. ' I have to train. I have to know spells I shouldn't know at my age. I need to trick him into thinking I'm just some little kid who got lucky when he was a baby so he won't treat me like a threat.' Harry thought that was at least a good starting ground anyway. And it shouldn't be too hard to trick him. If Snape was anything to go by, Slytherins were taught that Gryffindors were all impulsive imbeciles. So if Harry used that to his advantage as well as Voldemort's enormous ego( seriously it was the size of bloody England) he might have a better chance to escape next time he was confronted by the evil git. He might survive. He could survive! He could-

Harry suddenly thought about the two other people in the room. His best friends. Harry couldn't put them through that. Voldemort was coming back and Harry cared far too much for his friends to put them through all this.

This fight was between him and Voldemort and he utterly refused to put Ron or Hermione in the line of fire. Harry would have to cut off all ties. Yes, this was a good idea. His chest suddenly started to ache at the thought but it was for the best. He already lost his parents, his childhood, and his chance to live with his Godfather because of Voldemort. He would be damned if he let that bastard take away Ron and Hermione from him and everyone else too.

He sealed his resolve. It was for the best he tried telling himself trying ( and failing) to ignore the ache in his chest. He turned around and tuned back into the conversation. Hermione was at the part where Snape was freaking out because he wouldn't get his Order of Merlin and Ron was not even bothering hiding his grin.

He was about to interrupt and hopefully find the right words to explain why he could never talk to them again. When his mind heard Ron's voice said " _If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!_ " Ron, his best mate, told ,what he thought was a mass murderer, that he would have to kill him (and Hermione) too. At the time he was just to filled with hatred at Sirius too truly register the words. The bravery and loyalty he showed in just one sentence nearly brought tears to his eyes.

But his mind wasn't done tormenting him yet. " _If we manage that without being seen, it'll be a miracle!_ " This time it was Hermione. Hermione, goody- two shoes - always- follow- the- rules- Hermione. Who didn't even bat an eye when she took them back in time to save Sirius. Hermione who probably was very aware that they were both breaking several, incriminating, laws. She did it anyway because she knew how much this meant to Harry. The ache in his chest somehow also got to his stomach and got ten times worse. How was he supposed to tell them he couldn't ever talk to them again. They meant the world to him and he… and he…

" Harry, mate, what's wrong?" Ron asked concerned.

Harry snapped out of his thoughts and felt the tears escaping from his eyes. What was he supposed to do. These two meant the world to him. They were the only two people he could truly be "just Harry" around. He wasn't "Freak" or "Boy" and he definitely wasn't the " Boy- Who- Lived". They treated him like he always wanted to be treated: Normal. He let out a choked sob.

He was in such a daze he missed Hermione pulling him to Ron's bed and gently forcing him to sit down. It took Harry a few minutes to calm down. Hermione was rubbing gently on his back and Ron was sitting up holding his hand. When Harry completely stopped crying Hermione gave him a tissue and Ron poured him a glass of water from the pitcher on the bedside.

Hermione was the first to break the silence.

" Harry, what's wrong?" she asked carefully.

" A lot of things happened today and my emotions just got the better of me." Harry said trying to avoid the question. " It's nothing-"

"Bullshit." Ron interrupted.

" Language." Hermione said automatically. " But accurate. Harry please, we're your friends. We can help you go through what's going on in your head. We won't judge or be angry with you. I promise. But keeping it bottled up inside isn't healthy and will not go away. So please tell us what's going on." Hermione said in one breath. Harry looked at both of them. Both of them looked concerned and uncertain. He supposed they had a right to. The only negative emotions he had shown around the two was annoyance and anger. Harry took a deep breath, stood up and ignored the ache in his chest. This was for their own good. He had to protect them.

" I can't be friends with you two anymore." he said in a very pathetic, barely audible voice. Ron looked like he was about to stand up and give him an earful when Hermione put her hand on his shoulder to keep him down and said "Why?"

" Why? WHY?!" he started whisper shouting at them ( So he wouldn't disturb Madam Pomfrey) " I'm bad luck that's why. Bad things always happen around me. You would be better off without me! Better off never becoming friends with me. Look at where being friends with me got you two! In the freaking hospital with a broken leg and dark curse" Harry said gesturing towards Ron. "And almost being kissed by a dementor." Harry explaining looking at Hermione.

"Hermione can you perform a privacy charm, right now?" Ron said deathly calm voice. Hermione did it easily and nodded at Ron signaling she was done. Harry got a bad feeling.

" HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Ron shouted at him. " If you think we'll just stop being friends with you because of something you had absolutely no control over you have got another thing coming!"

" But I am dangero-"

" Don't interrupt me!" Ron said in a manner eerily similar to his mother. " We have been your friends for almost three years now and if you truly think we will just drop you just like that." Ron had started pacing with a slight limp." And for some stupid reason that YOU don't even believe then you are dead wrong."

" Harry," Hermione said softly. " All three of us have gone through so much. Much more than are peers I would assume. We will not throw that away. So please tell us what exactly brought this on?"

Harry was about to respond when Ron interrupted." And don't lie to us. We know your tells by now."

Harry swallowed the lie( it wasn't a lie ,it was a half truth) he was going to say and looked back at the two. Then his mind decided to flashback to the end of first year. Right before going through the trapdoor to get the Stone.

 _"If you want to go back, I won't blame you," he said. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."_

 _"Don't be stupid," said Ron._

 _"We're coming," said Hermione._

He looked both of them in the eye and said solemnly " You two are sure you want the truth?"

They both nodded without hesitation. Harry sighed and told them everything. About the prophecy. About Pettigrew. About Voldemort coming back to get him. About his fears on the matter.

When Harry finished the trio basked in silence for a while. Then Ron said " that all?"Hermione hit him for his lack of tact. " Ow. Blimey Hermione."

" Guys, please. I don't want Voldemort( Ron and Hermione flinched) to kill you because of me. It's for the best that we cut ties now before-." Hermione hit him over the head.

" Harry, please stop being a noble git for five minutes and start thinking please." she said exasperated. "You-Know-Who wouldn't come after Ron and me because you."

"But-"

"No Harry," Ron interrupted "You-Know-Who and his followers would come after me because I belong to the Weasley family. You know, the biggest blood- traitors in all of England."

"And they would come after me because I'm a know-it all-little mudblood." Hermione stated calmly.

" Don't say that word, Hermione!" Ron and Harry said simultaneously.

" Why not?" Hermione challenged. " That's exactly what I am to bigots like I refuse to let that word affect me like they think it would. But that is besides the point." Hermione looked directly at Harry. " You leaving us would not protect us from and his followers would come after us anyway."

" Exactly, so how about instead of trying to bloody save us from something you can't save us from. You let us help you." Ron added.

" Yes, would always work better as a team, surely you've notice this as well." Hermione said.

Harry gave them a small smile. " Yes I have noticed... And don't call me Shirley." Hermione and Ron smiled at the small joke. They knew they made him feel somewhat better about the situation if they got him joking. " I suppose I have been acting stupid the past 10 minutes. Not sure what came over me."

"It's been a long day ,Harry. Finals, Buckbeak, Sirius, werewolves, traitors, dementors, and going back in time. You're exhausted and not thinking clearly." Hermione said.

"No, Hermione I am thinking clearly." Harry said determined.

"Harry-"

"No, let me finish Ron. I will not apologize for trying to find a way to protect you. No matter how unhelpful it was. You two mean the world to me and I would fall apart if anything happened to either one of you. So I am going to train myself so hard so I won't have to lose you. I will study until I pass out . I will push myself until I cannot stand up. I will do whatever it takes to defeat Voldemort and nothing you guys say to me will stop me. This isn't some kind of game. Voldemort will come after me, and if not him his followers. Wizards who have decades of practice and knowledge behind their belt. I need to be ready for them and any other plot they may conceive.I will do whatever it takes to defeat Voldemort and nothing you guys say to me will stop me."

" We won't stop you." Ron said.

" I will not be persuaded from this- wait,what?"

"We will not stop you." Ron said rolling his eyes. " Also, for epic speeches given to us late at night, not one of your best."

" I'm tired, sue me." Harry snipped.

"Ron's right, neither one of us will stop you. Personally I think it's a great idea and would like to be apart of this whole endeavor. After tonight I didn't feel particularly good about myself. We easily would have been out matched if Sirius or Professor Lupin had actually wanted to kill us. I for one don't ever want to be in that kind of situation ever again and would very much like to join you. " Hermione stated.

" There is no way I'm letting either of you leave me out of this. I'm in too. I don't care how hard it is, I'll do whatever it takes." Ron said.

" You guys would really-"

"How many times do we have to get this through your thick skull? We are in this together!" Hermione said slightly annoyed.

Harry got a warm feeling in his chest. " You guys really are the best. You know that?"

"We know." They said together.

"So what's the plan now?" Ron asked looking at both of them.

" Well," Harry started. "First things first we should probably plan what we're going to do over the summer then we-" Harry stopped mid-sentence because he saw Madam Pomfrey come out of her office. " Hermione!" Harry said quickly. " Take away the privacy charm."

Hermione whispered the incantation and hid her wand back into her robes before Madam Pomfrey noticed.

"What do you three think you are doing? You three should be resting!" The healer yelled at the trio. She walked right over to Harry and Hermione, grabbed their arms and started dragging them to their beds.

"Oi, we were in the middle of a conversation!" Ron said.

" And you may feel free to continue your conversation after you have rested." Madam Pomfrey said with a pointed look. Ron huffed but went back to his assigned bed. Harry and Hermione were then put back to their original beds and the Mediwitch refused to leave until both of them were under their she then quickly walked away to her office.

" We'll talk about this tomorrow." Harry said loud enough so only Ron and Hermione could hear. They both nodded but didn't respond because Madam Pomfrey came back in the room with three potion bottles.

" I want all three of you to drink these."

"What are they?" Harry asked.

" Sleeping drought. Yes you all have to drink these." She said. Harry suspected she didn't trust the three of them to fall asleep any other way. He didn't comment on it, instead he drank the foul potion as quickly as possible to avoid the taste. He put the potion bottle and glasses next to his bedside table and immediately fell into peaceful slumber.

 **The golden trio start planning next chapter! Something they should have done in the canon after three years of danger. Oh well. Anyway I wanted to do something fun at the end of each chapter. Readers ( you guys) can ask questions in the reply section and the most popular question or most asked will be answered in the next chapter.( Probably at the end.) I think it would be a good interactive experience. The questions can be about the story, me the author, favorite books, possible future plans… anything you want to know really. So let me start out by telling you MY three favorite headcanons. I did not create any of them, only found them.**

 **is of Indian descent. Ever since I found out Hari means Lion in an old Indian language ( Sanskrit) I just couldn't shake it. Because let's be real James Potter is such a little dweeb and name his son after his house mascot.**

 **Ginny's first ever Quidditch match with the Harpies, the opposing team's Keeper said she only got on the team because she was dating Harry Potter. After hearing this Ginny got a hold of the quaffle and threw it so hard at him he flew back through that goal post. No one questioned her position again.**

 **my favorite. Harry told all of the surviving members of the D.A. about what Dumbledore and Snape did. (Letting Harry die because he was a Horcrux and being a bully teacher and causing Voldemort to hear the prophecy in the first place.) Instead of justifiably being mad at them they created this new in-joke that they were the greatest two people who ever lived. They would go on hour long rants about the two heros. Some made art , some wrote Epic poems. Neville actually made a shrine of Snape in his garden. But Harry and Ginny were in this to win. So they named their second child after them both. They only told the child that he was named after "two of the bravest people he ever knew" to make him feel better about the fact he had a horrible name. But the D.A. knew the truth. That they had won.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own nothing. If I did do you really think I would write my stories for free?**

Secret Plans

The following morning was an affair for the trio. They all woke up around ten and managed to convince Madam Pomfrey to let them go by eleven.( Seriously, she even said they were fine but kept them there anyway.) The trio immediately bolted from the infirmary after they were dismissed. The three set to work. They found in unused classroom and planned what they would be doing over the summer.

Ron would be reading as much as he could about the rise and fall of Voldemort and his followers. He would be finding patterns and tactics they used as well as finding all creatures and the most used dark spells and how to counter them. Also he would try to get Charlie and Bill's advance books on creatures and curse-breaking. And if he could swallow his pride, ask Percy for help… if he was desperate.

Hermione would be finding combatant ways to use the spells they already weren't known for combat. Check her Herbology textbooks for any magical plants they could weaponize. Finding what runes would be vital to know in an any dangerous situation. And spend most of her free time creating potions for them to use if the need arises.

Harry, having the least resources of the three, would be heading to the local library and reading as much as he could about muggle history. Specifically how to defeat an enemy more powerful than you. He would also be reading up on muggle psychology and sociology to try to predict how his enemy was going to act. They("they" being Hermione) figured if they could get any advantage on Voldemort, it would be in muggle areas.

All three of them were going to try being more active in the summer too. They knew they weren't going to be a real threat anytime soon. So the logical answer was to start working out so if a threat they couldn't handle came around they could run for their lives without gasping for air, but still have the stamina to fight back if they didn't have a choice.

The final thing they decided to do was go over every defence spell their textbooks provided. To the point where they could cast it in their sleep.

"Okay, I think that is as much as we can plan for. And we can always adapt it later on if it's not there any complaints?" Harry asked.

"None, that I can think of Harry." Hermione said. "I'm going to go to the library to see if Madam Prince has any ideas on what books we should be using." Harry grabbed her arm in a panic before she could leave. "Harry?" She asked in confusion.

" I don't think we should tell anyone what we're doing."

" Why not?" Ron questioned.

" Think about it. If we tell anyone they'll try to stop us. They'll say 'You are much too you to be worrying about something like this.' 'You are too young to even begin practicing this kind of advance magic.' ' You should let the adults handle this and go enjoy yourselves.'

"They won't take us seriously and even if they do help, they will be watching us like hawks."

" I think you're exaggerating-" Hermione said.

" No, it took me longer than necessary to convince Lupin to teach me the patronus charm- and that was after I had been attacked -TWICE." He looked both of them in the eye. "Look I understand we'd probably learn faster if we learned from the experts. But they wouldn't help us- well at least not the help we want."

" So, we can't ever ask them for help?"

"No, we can ask for help but we just can't tell them the truth behind it."

"Sounds reasonable." Ron said.

Hermione still wasn't convinced. So Harry decided to he needed to be more convincing . "Hermione, remember in first year when we tried to tell Professor McGonagall about the Stone and how it was in danger and she didn't believe us."

"Yes but-"

" Or about how in second year the staff still kept the school open even though Muggle-born students were being petrified."

"Harry-"

" How about last night when Madam Pomfrey and the Minister of Magic practically brushed what we had to say aside. They didn't even listen to us. Just believed what Snape said." Hermione tried to say something in defense but got nothing out. She continued looking helplessly a Harry. " We are nothing more than children to them. Children not worth listening too. Even when Dumbledore- bloody Dumbledore believed us when nobody else did we were the ones who had to go back in time to save Sirius. Not him. Us. For the past three years we have been the ones saving the school. And even after each time we do they still don't give us a bloody chance to explain. Just dismiss us. I am tired of it.I'm done."

" ...I see your point, Harry." Hermione said in a soft voice. " But we can't just- just never ask for their help."

" I know that."

"So what do we do? What do we say to people when they see us studying so much? What are we supposed to say to our professors when we ask them for help on something that isn't for class?"

" Well..." Ron said hesitantly " Hermione you could just say it's for your O.W.L.s study schedule or you're just looking into possible future careers. Harry and I could say that you scared us into worrying about our future so we're following your lead."

Hermione thought about it for moment. Looked at both of them and sighed. " I suppose that could work."

" It will work." Harry said smiling at Ron. " As long as we act relatively the same, no one will catch on!" Hermione still had an uncertain look. " Come on, Hermione. It's not like we're breaking the rules or anything. What are they going to do? Give us detention for studying? Hermione shoulders relaxed slightly. " And besides, it will be really fun. Having our own secret club." Hermione rolled her eyes and smiled at him.

"Okay, I'll agree to keep this a secret. But only if you both do the work."

" Don't need to worry about that, we'll do it." Harry said.

" Good" Hermione said " Now I'll go to the library to go create study plans for the three of us over the summer as well as see if there are any books that might be helpful." Hermione then left the two boys in the empty classroom.

" Should we tell her we won't use her study plans?" Ron said.

" She'd make them anyway." Ron sorted. After a beat Harry decided to get Ron's full opinion on the situation. " Ron are you sure you want to do this. I mean we're preparing for a battle we're not sure even exists. And I know neither one of us are ones to study unless absolutely necessary…"

" Harry…" Ron said slowly. " When Sirius dragged me into the Whomping Willow… it was the most terrifying moment of my life. And then when I saw who exactly was dragging me… I froze… I knew in that moment that even if he hadn't taken my wand I wouldn't have been able to do anything… I only came out of my… frozen state when you kicked the door and barged in. I thought he was going to kill you in front of me and…" Ron stopped speaking. After a few tense, emotional moments he spoke again. " Harry, I don't ever want to feel that defenceless again. I will work for this. I won't slack, not… not for something like this."

Harry was amazed and touched by his best friend's statement. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Harry decided to change the topic to something a little lighter. " So how are you going to deal with your family. Studying, especially in the summer, is out of character."

" Well, I figured I just tell them Hermione asked me to do it. And hoped they just buy it." Ron said sheepishly.

" There is no way they are going to buy it."

"It's fine, the only people who will make a big deal out of it are the twins. And I can handle their teasing for a summer."

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

" Come on, less go to the great hall before lunch is over."

" Oh, good. I'm bloody starved

* * *

After Ron and Harry and eaten lunch in the great hall they decided to sneak some food into the library for Hermione. ( She developed a bad habit of forgetting to eat this year.) About half way there they ran into Hagrid, who had the biggest smile on his face.

The pair of them tried to act surprised when the giant said Buckbeak escaped. Luckily he was too elated to notice their bad acting.( Something to work on over the summer.) However the news turned sour when Hagrid told them Lupin had resigned.

Harry told Ron to go inform Hermione and that he would try to persuade Lupin to stay here.

It didn't work. When Harry got to his office Lupin was done packing and just about to leave. Harry did his best to convince him to stay but it was no use. The werewolf had made up his mind. But before he left Lupin had given him the Marauder's Map and his father's invisibility cloak back and said to keep in to keep in touch.

Then Dumbledore came in saying his carriage was ready and Lupin left promptly. Harry decided to tell Dumbledore about the prophecy, mostly because he would be the only one who would believe him. Although Dumbledore's response wasn't what he expected. The man had believed him, but he said that it was the second prediction that came true. Which begs the question… what was the first?" Harry was too busy thinking about it that he missed Dumbledore leaving him with his thoughts.

* * *

Harry left Lupin's old office to meet up with Ron and Hermione. Luckily he had the map back and saw that they were still in the library. He immediately set off to meet them.

When Harry got to the library the first thing he noticed was that it was completely empty. Which he thought was good because the three of them could talk freely.

"Harry!" Hermione whispered. "Over here." Harry turned to his right and saw his friends sitting at the small table.

"Were you able to get Lupin to stay?" Ron asked.

"No. He won't be coming back anytime soon."

"That's so unfair!" Hermione exclaimed " He was the best Defence teacher we've had."

"He said he wanted to leave before parents started to complain." Ron and Hermione stewed in anger for a bit before Ron said " This is all Snape's fault! He's still bitter about a mishap that happened over ten years ago so he reveals to the world about Lupin's condition. I knew Snape was a bastard but he's gone too far this time. He just ruined Lupin's life forever!"

" Professor Lupin is smart Ronald, I'm sure he'll bounce back."

"No he won't Hermione. Everyone in the wizarding world are afraid of werewolves. Dad says it's hard enough for an unknown werewolf to keep a job once they got them. You know because they can't come into work around the full moon. And after awhile the employers get suspicious and fire them out of fear. But all of Britain is going to know about him now. And he'll never get another job here again. All thanks to the bloody prick of a Potions teacher."

After Ron's rant Hermione looked horrified. She, like Harry, didn't know how bad it was for werewolves. "That's horrible." Hermione said. " This cannot be legal."

"It is Hermione." Ron interrupted. " Remus either has to work in the muggle world or move to France, Bulgaria, America or Brazil if he wants to work again. Those are the only countries that actually have laws in place that make it illegal to turn down someone because they're a werewolf." Harry and Hermione sat there flabbergasted at the information just given to them.

"How- how do you know that?" Hermione asked.

" Bill has a coworker who's a werewolf in hiding."

"And he told you about?" Harry asked sceptically.

"No… he told Charlie. I just... happened to overhear." Ron said while his ears started going red. Harry smirked at the implication .

"This completely unjust. Professor Lupin shouldn't have to move to get basic rights!" Hermione said righteously. Then Hermione gave a look of realization. " Snape is a bloody bastard." Harry and Ron gave looks of surprise. This was the first time either one of them had heard her swear. " Snape knew exactly what he was doing. He completely and utterly ruined him." She said near tears. " And all because of some childhood grudge! This is completely unacceptable." She got a look of determination. " I'm going to go talk to Professor Dumbledore."

Hermione left the library in a rush. The two boys just stood there not sure what to do.

" Sh- should we go after her?" Ron questioned after a few moments.

"No…" Harry said " If Dumbledore could do something he would have already done it… Let's try and do something here so Hermione will calm down faster when she comes back."

The two boys set to work. They had to ask Madam Pince were they could find any information regarding laws on werewolves. She gave them a sad smile a pointed to where they needed to go. There was only a handful of information on werewolf laws and it was decided that Harry would read and take notes on them while Ron went to the history section to begin working on finding patterns Voldemort used in the last war.

Hermione came back about an hour and a half later fuming.

" Dumbledore said there was nothing he could do!" she said bitterly. " He said he already had a serious discussion with Snape and that everything would turn out okay in the end! He had the gall to look me in the eyes and say it too!" They had never, ever seen her this mad about something. Neither one knew what to say.

Hermione then sighed and deflated her shoulders. " … I think you were right, Harry."

" ...About what?"

" About not telling anyone about what we're doing. "

" Really?" Ron said.

"Yes," Hermione said. " While Gryffindors are known for their bravery they are also known for their sense of right and wrong. A need for justice. But both Dumbledore and Mcgonagall just told me there was nothing they could do. So I went to Professor Flitwick thinking he might be able to think of a way to help. But he couldn't. He just brushed me away. Then I went to Professor Sprout she said the same thing. I went to as many teachers as possible but none of them would put up a fight for Professor Lupin…" A few tears fell from her eyes when she whispered " I trusted and looked up to them… and- and they did nothing. I had always thought..." She started crying silently

The boys were in over their heads. They looked at each other, neither knew what to after a while Harry spoke up.

" I don't know what you what us to say , Hermione."

" You don't have to say anything, either of you" She took several calming breaths. " I'm not upset that they can't do anything. I'm upset that they won't even try doing something. I'm upset that they wouldn't help their coworker. I'm upset that they wouldn't help their former student. But mostly I'm upset at the thought of that someday if we were in trouble they…"

" They might not try to help us?" Ron finished. Hermione nodded and started crying again. Ron grabbed her hand to silently support her.

" Do you think that's why Dumbledore asked the two of us to go. He couldn't be bothered to save Sirius." Hermione whispered.

" No. I think he knew we were the only ones who could pull it off. But that doesn't mean we have to tell him what we're doing. He's the one who keeps defending Snape from… something."

" Think he has dirt on the slimy git?" Ron asked.

" Maybe…" Harry said. Ron did make a point. Snape hated children. So it wasn't a passion for teaching that kept him here. He was also a Potion Master. He could work anywhere and make much more there. So the money also wasn't keeping him here. He decided to put "finding why Snape teaches here' on his to-do list Then he noticed that Hermione was still crying. While out of his depth with dealing with a crying girl. He thought of something to say.

"So the staff here let us down. That doesn't mean there's no hope for a better future. If we work at this maybe, we can change this world for the better. Maybe we'll be the ones to help werewolf rights come to forwishen. But until then we look out for each other. Deal?"

Hermione gave a small, watery smile and wiped away her tears with her sleeve. Ron gave him a thankful look.

" So Harry and I have been researching, care to join us?" Ron asked. If anything Hermione's smile got bigger.

That's how they spent the majority of their last week at school. Stuck in the library. (Although Ron did convince them to go for a walk outside every five to six hours. Harry was thankful. He wasn't used to studying for such long hours at a time.)

But then came the final day of school. All three of them were packed and ready to go. They boarded the Hogwarts Express and spent most of the ride talking to each other, knowing full well they wouldn't be seeing one another for several weeks.

However their conversation was ended abruptly when Hermione saw a tiny gray mass outside there compartment window. Harry opened the window and grabbed it. When he pulled it back into the apartment he saw it was a tiny, little owl. He released it and the owl started excitingly flying all over the place. Ron eventually grabbed it out of the air when he saw Crookshanks eyeing it. That's we he noticed the letter around it's leg.

" Hey, Harry, it's from Sirius! " Ron said. He gave Harry the letter and Harry read it aloud. The gist of the letter was that he and Buckbeak made it out alright and will be hiding out south. He was the one who sent Harry the firebolt. Sirius had given Harry a permission slip to go to Hogsmeade.("That will be good enough for Dumbledore!") And that the owl was now Ron's if he wanted it. (After Crookshanks gave his approval Ron accepted)

All too soon the train had stopped and it was time to go home. He said his goodbyes to Hermione and the Weasley family, promising to write, and left with his uncle, aunt, and cousin. After threatening them with his mass murdering , criminal godfather, of course. ( Maybe now they would treat him decently.)

He got into the family car and promised himself this summer was going to be different.

 **Hooray! Second Chapter Done! Now onto the question from OH no one asked a question. Y'all are too good to ask a question on my lowly fanfic? I see how it is. But seriously are you guys crazy? You can get dirt on story ideas before they are written. Or, even better, get to know the fantastical author a little more. What I'm trying to say is WRITE A DARN QUESTION!(she said calmly) Until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Slytherins would have stayed at the Battle of Hogwarts if I owned the rights to Harry Potter. But I do not. Sad.**

Keeping Up With The Trio

Granger Resistance August 5, 1994

Hermione Granger was currently in her kitchen currently making some potions. What kind of Potion one may ask? A potion to help one see in the dark? A blood replenishing potion to help a fallen friend? No, it was a nutrient potion. Riveting I know. But it was important.

A few days after summer break had started Harry sent out in SOS to both her and Ron that the Dursleys were all going on a diet. Hermione's first thought was that it would be good for his cousin and uncle if they lost a few pounds. But they were also forcing it on Harry. And Hary needed to gain weight, not lose it. So Hermione did the only logical thing possible. She decided to make a food package every few days that was filled with non- perishable foods and nutrient potions. Ron was also helping by convincing his mother to send him some sweets.

Harry had tried to tell them it was too much. Which lead her to send him more. He stopped trying to get her to stop after that.

She finally finished her potion around three in the afternoon. Right on time. Which means now she would do a half hour of yoga. Now, Hermione knew she wasn't very athletic. But she created a simple workout schedule for herself. She would wake up at seven in the morning and run for as long as possible and when she couldn't go on she walk back home. Currently she was at 10 minutes without needing to stop. She was extremely proud of herself. Then around 3 she would do yoga. She read that it would help her flexibility, agility and help her recover faster from her also found it relaxing, so that was a plus. The final thing she did was the most juvenal, at least in her opinion , around sun down she would go to her backyard and climb her tree. It was purely for strengthening her upper body. Nothing else! The rest of her day was spent studying defence and creating new uses for old spells. The first one she wrote down was obvious.

Wingardium Leviosa: Aim at your opponents wand arm and their curse will aim upwards instead of at you. Or aim at their legs and have your opponent fall over. Non- lethal.

She had a notebook filled with every spell they had ever learned in class and how one could use it in battle. Even ones that wouldn't seem to help in battle. For example

Lumos: If you and an attacker are in a dark room , get as close as possible to their eyes and produce the brightest Lumos you can muster. The light will cause temporary discomfort and blindness if used correctly. Non-lethal.

After 30 minutes she finished her yoga session for the day. She was about to re- read her notes on the Monster Book of monsters when she her a small tapping noise coming from her bedroom window. It was Harry's owl, Hedwig. She opened her window and the beautiful snow owl landed to the table next to her bed. Hermione gently took the letter attached to the owl's leg and opened it.

 _Dear Hermione,_

 _First Let me thank you again for the care package but I keep telling you that it isn't needed anymore. I can take of myself you know._ Hermione rolled her eyes and kept reading.

 _Second, I wanted to ask your ( and Ron's) opinion on something. Recently I have come in possession of two books that could help us out. First is a book detailing how to you morse code. I seriously doubt anyone in the school would be able to understand us and tapping on a desk or table wouldn't be that suspicious. The second was an old book on the basics of ASL (American Sign Language) why it was in a British library, i don't know but I thought this could be useful to have full conversations without being heard. Like back when we were in the Shrieking Shack . While I'm glad we didn't really hurt Sirius, it would have been better if we had a plan beforehand._

 _There's also the added benefit that I doubt anyone would know Sign Language at school. But even if they did it would be British Sign, not American. I don't know . It could be useful, it could be a waste of time. Personally, I think it's worth a shot._

 _Finally, I want to address that you can stop worrying about me. I can handle the Dursleys until the Weasleys come pick us up at the end of summer. Have fun in France!_

 _-Harry_

Hermione was feeling very mixed emotions after reading his letter. The first was pure happiness. When the summer had started, she wasn't sure Harry or Ron would keep up there study regiment. But they did. And Harry was currently going outside the box and finding new things to research. She did like the idea of learning ASL and morse code. Even though she knew that if they did learn morse code her boys would use it to communicate during class instead of listening to the professor. Meh. She could always glare at them to stop. Then her train of thought went to the last paragraph of the letter. He always said he was fine at the Dursleys but she knew he was lying. He hated being there.

Whenever she or Ron tried to get him to open up about it he would either get defensive or change the subject. Not to mention that Ron told her that during the summer of second year he had bars on his window and looked really thin- thinner than usual. The only reason they weren't being awful this summer was because he was using Sirius to scare them off. And even that didn't stop them from nearly starving him with Dudley's diet. She wanted him out of there now! That's when she got an idea. She quickly left her room, leaving Hedwig and Crookshanks and went to her living room. " Mom, Dad can I ask you something?"

* * *

The Burrow August 11th 1994

Sixty-three, Sixty-four, Sixty-five, Sixty six. I was currently doing push-ups in my bedroom at the buttcrack of dawn. Now why was I doing push-up so early in the morning you may ask. Bill, that was the answer.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning. In July, my family figured out something was off with me. I was reading and taking notes in books that weren't even school issued. My summer homework was done during the first week of summer. Fred and George had tried to see if Percy and I switched bodies. When they decided we hadn't they asked me what was going on. I was prepared for this question and said, " Because Hermione said it was a good idea, O.W.L.s are coming up soon so… yeah all Hermione's idea really..." They seemed to buy it. A little too well. They started teasing me whenever I wasn't studying like this " Gasp! Ron isn't studying!? What would dear, old Hermione say?" " Ron! Your nose isn't in a book? Hermione is going to be so disappointed when she finds out." Apparently they thought I had a crush on Hermione. Which was ridiculous. I don't like her like that. At all. End of discussion.

Ginny was the next one to ask. " What's going on Ron?" I knew she wouldn't be fooled like the twins were so I had to tell her something different. " Well, I still feel bad about the fight I had with Hermione during third year." Which technically wasn't a lie. I still felt bad.

" So I thought maybe studying like her would, you know, make up for the fight somehow." There was the lie. Ginny simply rolled her eyes. " She already forgave you, you know." I had smiled back. She bought it. " Yeah I know. But I still want to make it up to her." That's sweet of you." Ginny hasn't brought it up again . Percy didn't really care what the reason was, all he cared about was that I was taking my studies seriously. Percy had even given him some of his old books that he didn't need anymore. Most had been about laws and inner workings of the Ministry. I had decided to keep a few. Maybe one of us could find a law or loophole that could help Lupin with his werewolf problems. And lastly my parents didn't care what the reason was either. They were just really proud of me that I was taking my studies seriously.

But that all changed when Bill came home. He somehow managed to get the whole month of August off from work. And decided to spend it with his family. Now don't get me wrong Bill was probably my favorite brother but… he was bloody observant. Something he probably had to learn being the eldest of seven. So if Bill caught me taking notes on his old curse breaker books, reading about the rise and fall of You-Know-Who, or working out for the sake of working out, he would get really suspicious. So it was better to wake up before he did so I can get as much done as possible before Mom wakes us all up for breakfast. After finishing up all of my morning workout routine I saw Pig ,my owl, fling himself through my open window and fly all around my room like a tornado. I grabbed him out of the air and took the letter from his leg. It was from Hermione.

 _Dear Ron,_

 _To get the pleasantries out of the way, France is brilliant, I'm learning a lot about french wizarding culture, and has overall been a pleasant experience._

 _I'll talk about it more in detail when Harry and I are at the Burrow. Speaking of Harry, I hope you told your parents that he will be staying with me for the next week so they should know they only have to make one trip for us._ I scoffed 'Of course I told my parents… I think…'

 _Also I wanted to get your opinion, I learned that most wizarding families keep priceless heirlooms and information in their vaults. So do you think it would be a good idea to take Harry to his family vault to see if anything could be helpful or useful information. I mean Harry's father and friends managed to create a map of Hogwarts and become animagi before they graduated. And his mother was considered a prodigy during her time. They might have left behind some incredible irreplaceable pieces of knowledge behind that could be beneficial to us._

 _And while I want your opinion on this matter, I also wanted Bill's opinion on the matter. Being a curse- breaker and all. So could you ask him?_

 _Lastly, when should I owl Harry that my family is picking him up? Obviously I should tell him. But I don't want to tell him too early for him to convince my parents they don't have to ( you and I both know he would). Any suggestions would be appreciated._

 _Yours truly,_

 _Hermione_

I knew I would have to respond quickly to her letter. She was scheduled to "kidnap" Harry on the 15th after all. But I would have to talk to Bill first. I really hope I didn't blow it for us.

But in the meantime I had work to do. I grabbed my almost filled in muggle notebook and pen. ( Hermione bought some for Harry and me. Seriously, muggle writing stuff was so much easier to use.) And opened the book to the chapter I was on 'Mayhem in the Streets'.

* * *

4 Privet Drive August 14th, 1994

Harry Potter was currently on a relaxing Sunday morning jog. Harry loved running in the mornings. He didn't think he would but he did. He loved the wind in hair, the morning sun shining on him, but most of all he loved getting out of the Dursley House.

Normally, the Dursleys wouldn't have dared allowed him any sort of happiness. But with the threat of his "murderous godfather , Sirius Black. They begrudgingly allowed it.

It was the best summer Harry had ever had. Not only were the Dursleys letting him enjoy himself, but he also had a lot more free time on his hands. Normally he would be expected to do every single chore that needed doing. Now all he had to do was mow the lawn and weed the garden. He was also supposed to cook for them too, but Petunia thought he would mess up Dudley's diet so he got one less chore to do. Suffice to say, Harry was happy. Now he had time to do his research and exercises.

Personally he believed his friends would be proud of his daily routine.

Wake up around 6:30 in the morning eat some of the food Hermione packed for him. Go on an hour run to the closet library. ( He used walk most of it) Spend about the next eight hours there. Reading as much as he could. Run back to the Dursley Residence and read through his school textbooks. And repeat.

But sometime in the middle of July one of the librarians started talking to him. His name was Theodore White, an elderly man who had apparently fought in World War Two. Harry had asked the man a lot of questions about his service and made sure to write down certain things he learned from him. Somehow by the end of July Harry and Mr. White had reached an agreement. Harry would work as a volunteer for the library for about two hours, and Mr. White would bring him lunch and would tell Harry about his time as a soldier.

And sometimes Harry would be in charge of going through books donated to the library. For the most part they were books that didn't interest him. But sometimes there were a few gems. Like books on how to communicate silently. He always asked permission! Mr. White always said yes. Personally, Harry thought Mr. White just really liked having someone take an interest in his stories so he would give Harry whatever book he wanted.

After Harry finished his morning run he came back to The Dursley residence and went up the stairs to his assigned room, trying not to wake any of his relatives up. ( The library was closed on Sundays)

Although he was surprised to see Hedwig with two letters waiting for him. While he, Ron, and Hermione had been writing more to each other this summer, it was rare to have to letters addressed to him at the same time. Harry shrugged it off and randomly picked up a letter.

 _Harry,_

 _Tomorrow, August 15th, my parents will be coming over to 4 Privet Drive to take you to my house. You will be staying with me until we go stay with the Weasleys. So pack everything you need to school as well. I expect you to have your trunk completely packed and ready by noon. Otherwise I will pack for you. Don't think I won't._

 _See you tomorrow,_

 _Hermione._

Harry laughed, put down the letter and said to Hedwig, " I guess we're leaving this place earlier than expected." Hedwig nodded her head in agreement and went into her cage for a nap.

Harry then picked up the second letter.

 _Harry,_

 _Hermione is coming to get you. Don't try to convince us otherwise. Either you go with her willingly or she drags you kicking and screaming._

 _But there are something you need to do there. I was talking to Bill the other day, you know how he's a curse breaker for Gringotts, he said a lot of wizarding families put treasured possessions in their vaults during the war. So do you think it's possible that your parents might have left something valuable there. So if you and Hermione could somehow get to your vault you could find out. I don't think you can take any money from it but you can take other things._

 _Also if you do go, wear some sort of disguise. A lot of people will recognise you in Diagon Alley and I'm assuming you don't want any journalist asking your opinion on how you feel about Sirius Black almost killing you. Hermione should also disguise herself too now that I'm thinking about it. But anyway it's still your decision to go. Hermione and I won't force it on you if you don't want to go._

 _On a lighter note, Dad says he might have a chance getting us tickets to the World Cup! Nothing's certain yet, but cross your fingers okay?_

 _See you at the Grangers ,_

 _Ron._

Harry looked down at the letter and laughed. " Those conspiring bastards. How long were they planning this kidnapping?" Harry looked at Hedwig, who had woken up from his outburst. "Were you in on it too?" Hedwig simply gave an innocent look and went back to sleep. Then Harry started thinking about going down to his bank vault. He didn't want to get his hopes up. What if nothing was there?

Harry started packing while he thought. Maybe there might be a few things. And at the very least it would probably be a good idea to check out the Potter vault to see whether or not he needs to be concerned with money in his trust vault when it's empty. Yes. Good plan. Don't get your hopes up but… maybe hope something-anything there belonged to his parents. After Harry got done packing he realized he should probably tell the Dursleys that he was leaving early this summer. So he went downstairs to the living room where he saw his uncle watching a sports show. When the show went to commercial Harry starting talking. He figured the direct approach would be the best way to go. " Good Morning , so my friend wants to pick me up tomorrow and if she does I won't be back until next summer." Harry thought that was the best way to get their attention. Let them know he would be out of their hair sooner rather than later. But then again this was the Dursleys, everything was more complicated than it needed to be.

"One of your kind is coming here?!"Uncle Vernon said "You think I'm going to let anymore freakishness into this house you have got another thing coming-"

" It's just her parents, who don't have mag- who are like you. Her parents are dentists." Harry said quickly trying to contain the situation.

" Hmm" his uncle said in what Harry could only assume was his thinking face. Harry understood the conundrum his uncle was facing. On one hand, Harry would be far happier being around his friend. And his uncle hated Harry being happy. But Uncle Vernon hated Harry in his house. And if he agreed to let Harry go, then Harry would leave three weeks earlier than expected.

" Fine you can go with this friend of yours." Harry so desperately wanted to say that Hermione would have taken him whether or not Uncle Vernon had agreed. But Harry kept his mouth shut.

"What time will she be over, boy?"

"Noon, sir."

" Alright, but they aren't allowed inside the house. They pick you up and then leave, got it boy?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

Harry walked back up the stairs and into his room and smiled. While he had told Ron and Hermione that he would be fine here at Privet Drive, he was secretly pleased they planned to get him out of here. " I really do have the best friends in the world." Harry said to a sleeping Hedwig.

 **I'm starting to understand why most fanfics start out with a brief summary and then get to the meat of the story. I hope you guys didn't find this chapter too it was needed. Now a few other things I wanted to address**

 **First, if the three of them are acting a bit awkward about the training they're doing remember they are freaking fourteen trying to train for something they have no idea how to train for.**

 **Second, how did you like my first person point of view of Ron? It was a bit of an experiment of mine to see how it would do. Do you like it? Or should I just stay with third person for the rest of the story.**

 **Third ,I'm not going to write a detailed list of exactly everything the trio did during the summer. That would be boring. But they'll probably talk in more detail when they all meet up.**

 **Anyway until next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I own nothing… for now…**

Chapter 4

Bank Vault Visit

Harry woke up bright and early the next day. Even though the Grangers were due to pick him up at noon, he still had a lot of things to do today. First he had to run to the library and tell Mr. White that he wouldn't be back until next summer. " I'll be waiting Mr. Potter." The old librarian had said. Harry would miss the old man.

Then Harry ran all the way back to the Dursleys. It was 10:00 in the morning he had just enough time to shower and eat the last of Hermione's care package. It was when he went back downstairs that he noticed a note on the dining table from his aunt.

 _Dudley and I will be out of the house all morning. Do not leave a mess and do not invite the girl or her family into this house. You will take your belongings and leave the property as quickly as possible. I do not want any of the neighbors to start talking. Also while you are out, see if it is possible to stay over at this friends house for all of next summer too._

"Love you too, Aunt Petunia." Harry muttered to himself. Harry glanced at the clock and saw it was almost 11:00. He went up to his room and brought his trunk down the stairs as "quietly" as possible, so he wouldn't alert the neighbors(note the sarcasm). He went back up to his room to double check that he had everything. Once he was satisfied he went to Hedwig's cage. "Hey, Hedwig You awake." Harry said to his sleeping owl. Hedwig woke up and gave him a look that said ' Well now I am.'

"I know I'm sorry. But Hermione is going to be over soon and I wanted to know if you wanted to fly over to her house or come with me in your cage. Hedwig pondered the question and flew out of her cage to the window. " Alright I guess I'll see you there." Before Hedwig flew off she gave him an affectionate nip on his hand and flew off. Harry grabbed her cage and went downstairs and started rereading his third year defense book.

He was in the middle of chapter 4 when he heard a knock at the door. He immediately put the book down and opened the door. Standing there was one of his best friends, Hermione Granger, and standing beside her was what Harry assumed to be Hermione's father. Before he could greet either one of them though, Hermione flung herself at Harry giving him a fierce bear hug.

"Now Hermione let the poor boy breathe."

"Sorry." Hermione said.

"Don't worry about it," Harry said. " I missed you too. And you are?"

"Daniel Granger. You can call me Dan if you want to. My wife, Emma is in the car."

" Nice to meet you."

There conversation was cut short by a car horn.

"Yeah, we can talk in the car, we don't want to be stuck in traffic for longer than necessary.

Together the three of them managed to get Harry's trunk and owl cage into the car and drove off. Hermione's parents asked several simple questions about Harry and was overall a pleasant conversation.. The Grangers seemed like really down to Earth people who were just as curious as their daughter when it came to things they wanted to know more about. But there was this strange thing Harry noticed. Whenever Hermione's parents brought up Hogwarts, Hermione would quickly take over. The stand out moment was when her father asked about how he, Ron and her had started to actually become friends. Before Harry could even respond Hermione answered for him. " I've already told you this. We were assigned to be a group project for history of magic. And while we didn't get along at first we eventually warmed up to each other. It's not that interesting of a story, Dad." Harry was about to say something when Hermione gave him a look to tell him to be quiet. Harry got the message but gave her back a look saying they would be talking about this.

The four of them made it to the Granger residence after an hour and a half drive. Together the four of them brought their vacation luggage and Harry's things into the house. Harry was shown the guest room. However he didn't feel the need to unpack considering he was only staying the week. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were currently in their bedroom unpacking, so Harry quickly went to Hermione's room to question her about about what happened in the car.

He entered her room and saw her putting away extremely thick books, probably for some light reading, on her rather large bookshelf. Looking around he did notice her room was pretty plain. White walls with light grey curtains, a twin bed with a light grey comforter, a bookshelf and writing desk. The only items that gave the room life were two picture frames. One was a picture of Hermione and her parents standing in front of the eiffel tower and the second of Ron, Hermione and himself sitting in the Gryffindor common room happily chatting with one another.

"I don't remember this photo being taken."

" I asked Colin to take for me." Hermione said.

" I feel like I would have noticed him taking the picture."

"He's a lot more subtle now. But I'm assuming you didn't come in here to talk about my pictures."

"No. Hermione… do your parents know anything about what's happened at Hogwarts? Do they know about are...adventures?"

"They know that some things happened to me there, they just don't know how dangerous those events were."

"Can you give an example?"

" The troll attack in first year, Mcgonagall sent out a letter of what happened in the bathroom. But while I was home for Christmas break I…" Hermione looked down ashamed. " I told them that Mcgonagall exaggerated and that trolls aren't that much of a danger as the letter may it out to be. I told them that trolls in the magical world were more of a nuisance than a danger."

"Hermione, why would-"

"Because I was scared. You, Ron and I became friends and I was worried my parents would pull me out of Hogwarts if they thought I would be in danger. So I lied to them so I could stay. And I've kept lying. I just hope they never find out."

After a moment to let the conversation sink in, Harry asked, "Do you think you'll ever tell them?"

"It would have to be after we graduate. But it's not exactly a talk I want to have with them."

Harry noticed how uncomfortable she was so he decided to take pity on her and change the subject.

"So, how's the research coming along?"

Hermione looked up, thankful for the subject change and went to her bookshelf and pulled out a yellow notebook and showed it to Harry.

" So this one has every spell that we learned from first year in class. It shows the name, what the spell does and how it could be used in a duel situation." Hermione gave him the notebook and he opened it to some random page.

 _Rictusempra-The tickling charm_ _: If used in battle it could distract your opponent but also confuse them as to why you would use such a simple charm in battle. Use that confusion to use a spell to get the upper hand. Non-lethal_

"Not all of the spells in here are going to help you win a battle," she said sheepishly, clearly seeing which one I read about first. "But it doesn't hurt to know a variety of spells and how to use them outside the purpose they were created for."

Harry looked down at the rest of the spells on the page with there possible battle uses. "I think these are brilliant he said flipping through the pages. That's when he noticed that the entire notebook was filled with spells.

"Merlin Hermione, you managed to fill an entire notebook with spells."

"Well… not quite"

Hermione managed to fill in seven notebooks worth of spells. Harry didn't even think it was possible for so many spells to exist. Hermione said that she hadn't even scratched the surface which made Harry feel extremely tired for the long nights that would await him trying to memorize those spells. They were interrupted by Mr. Granger calling them for dinner. The rest of the evening was extremely relaxing and fun. After dinner the Granger family decided to have a Star Wars marathon after finding out that Harry had never seen any of the movies. It it was a good end to an amazing day

* * *

The next morning Harry woke up at dusk. Normally he would have gone a long run, but considering he didn't know the neighborhood, he simple went around the block a couple times. He still had a lot of energy after the short run so he decided to climb the tree Hermione mentioned she would sometimes climb in her letters. It was surprisingly fun and he did manage to get rid of some off the excess energy. He decided to conclude the morning by doing as many push-ups as possible. ( Ron said he was up to eighty in a row. No way Harry wasn't going to keep up.)

"You know most teenagers sleep- in during the summer holidays."

Harry was startled by the voice. So much in fact that he face planted into the ground.

"Sorry Harry, didn't mean to scare you." Mrs. Granger said in a half apologetic, half amused voice.

" It's okay. It was an accident after all." Harry said getting to his feet. " I was more surprised to hear someone else awake this early in the morning."

"Harry, it's half past seven."

"Really?" Harry asked in disbelief. His morning run must have been longer than he thought.

"Yes, I just wanted to come out here to talk to you and tell you that my husband and I will be going back to work today. We were supposed to go in tomorrow but they really need us there today. So would you mind telling Hermione when she wakes up that we won't we back until around five tonight?"

"Yeah that's no problem."

Mr. Granger suddenly came out into the backyard and grabbed his wife's hand. "Honey we got to go now if we want to make our first appointments."

"Okay, I'm coming. I'm coming." Mrs. Granger said good- naturedly.

That's when Mr. Granger looked directly at Harry " And I don't want any parties being thrown while we're gone."

" Well there goes my afternoon." Harry joked back. Both Granger parents laughed as they rushed away to their car.

Once they were gone Harry went back into the house and decided to make himself and Hermione breakfast. About ten minutes later Hermione came down to the kitchen.

"Harry you didn't have to make breakfast alone. I would've helped."

"I didn't want to wake you up." Harry said just finishing up the toast and eggs. " Oh by the way your parents went into work this morning, they won't be back until the evening."

"Yeah, that's always the case." She said getting jam and butter out of the fridge. At Harry's questioning look she explained. " My parents are hard workers. They were suppose to have the next few days off, but they hate sitting idly and constantly need to be working. So usually the day after we come back home they go straight to work."

"Does that bother you? That they would rather go to work then stay home with you." Harry asked curiously. Hermione gave Harry a quizzical look, almost as if she had never thought about it before.

" Not really, I'm the same way. Holiday is a nice break but I would go crazy if I wasn't being productive." Harry nodded and understood. Before the summer he would have thought that was crazy, if you can spend the day doing nothing you should take the opportunity to do so… but now, wasting even an hour made Harry furious with himself.

The two of them enjoyed their simple breakfast and talked about some of the other things they discovered during summer break. When they were done with breakfast they cleaned up the dishes and went into the living room to talk about possible ideas of what to do for the upcoming school year. However they didn't get very far because Harry wanted to discuss something else.

"Do you think it's possible for both of us to go to Gringotts without anyone noticing us?"

"Probably," Hermione said trying to think of a plan. " Since the school supplies list isn't out yet, Diagon Alley won't be as busy as usual. Also I did pick up a few things from France that could help us stay disguised… there should not be any problem. "

"You're not going to ask why I want to go?"

"Uhh." She said off-guard. " No, I - why do you want to go?"

"Ron told me about how he asked Bill about family vaults… and considering both you and him planned my kidnapping.. It stands to reason that you two also talked about the Potter vaults and getting me there."

"...Are you mad?"

"Kind of," Harry said honestly " You realize that you can talk to me about this kind of stuff- especially when it concerns my parents."

" We- I didn't want to get your hopes up. Just so you could be disappointed."

" And I understand that, but next time just tell me, okay?"

" Okay, I'll start telling you any concerns I may have, whether or not they concern you." Hermione started, " But Ron and I are still allowed to kidnap you from your relatives whenever we want, deal?"

Harry laughed and the promise turned business deal. " Okay deal."

"Glad you agree, because we still would have taken you."

"Okay, back to the original subject, how are we going to get there, we can't use magic, and I don't exactly feel like walking there." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Harry it's fine we can take the Knight bus."

Harry's stomach turned at the thought, then remembered a crucial detail. "Um, Hermione we would need to use magic to summon it."

"Yes," Hermione agreed, "but we won't get in trouble for it." Harry gave her a look of confusion. "I'll explain later, but now get your wand and some money. I want to get there before the lunch rush."

* * *

Thirty minutes later the duo were standing right before Gringotts.

After Harry had gotten his wand and money. Hermione had given him a long piece of blue fabric. She then explained that it was meant to be worn as a hand scarf or hijab. Apparently it was a very popular wizarding french fashion look. Harry thought they were brilliant. The scarves managed to conceal both his and Hermione's hair. Hermione had also given Harry some makeup to cover up his lightning shaped scar and sunglasses to cover up his vivid green eyes.

Hermione herself was wearing a light purple headscarf and also had sunglasses on.(She may not be famous like Harry, but wizards are gossips, so she didn't want to risk the chance of being recognized. Then both of them entered the Knight Bus, much to Harry's dismay. But Hermione did tell him something that most muggleborns were told during their first meeting with a Hogwarts while students weren't allowed to do magic , calling the Knight Bus didn't count. There was a lot of history behind the reasoning, that Hermione had no problem telling him about, but the simple version was that pure blooded parents didn't want to take their children everywhere and there was a need for muggle born students to have a method of getting to Diagon Alley.

When they got through the secret passage to Diagon Alley their conversation changed to other loopholes into using magic during the summer.

"Well aside from dire situations, you aren't allowed to use magic. However magic cannot be traced from areas of land that have been made unplottable or are under a fidelius charm.

Harry stopped mid step " Wait, aren't most wizarding house holds unplottable?"

"Yes."

"So children in those households wouldn't even register if they used magic."

"Yes."

"How is that fair!" Harry exclaimed.

"It's not." Then Harry had a different thought.

"That explains second year. How the ministry gave me a warning for using magic when I didn't use my wand... This whole thing seems to be less about holding the Statue of Secretly, then giving muggle-borns an unfair disadvantage."

Hermione simply nodded as they started climbing the steps at Gringotts. "The law itself was created when Muggleborns were treated like second class citizens…" Hermione let the sentence linger. Harry didn't know what to say.

When the two of them made it to the bank they were both surprised at how empty it was. The last few time Harry was here there would be dozens of witches and wizards here. But today they were the only two humans in the bank. It was a bit unnerving for Harry. But he pushed those feeling down and went up to the first teller with Hermione right behind him.

"Uh hello," Harry said mentally slapping himself for being nervous. He told a deep breath and continued. " I would like to visit my family vault today."

The goblin looked up from the paperwork in front of him and said " Name of the family vault and who wishes to visit."

"The Potter vault. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, a trusted friend."

"Mr. Potter, while you are allowed to go down to your family vault, the witch is not."

Harry didn't want to argue with the goblin. But he really wanted Hermione there with him. " Is there any way I could get her to come down with me?"

" If she was your betrothed, she could accompany you."

Hermione answered for him. Clearly afraid that Harry would say the wrong thing. "That won't be necessary. But could I talk to Harry before he goes to the "

" He will not being going to the vault until he goes through the customary blood test and has the proper family goblin escorting him. Mr Potter you will go through the corridor and the first room on the right. While Miss Granger will stay out here in the lobby." The goblin then pushed a small button on his desk and began to speak very quietly into a small device in a language he didn't recognise, while he and Hermione walked a few steps back so they wouldn't be overhear.

"That was weird." Hermione said. Harry couldn't help but agree. The other times he had been here, the goblins had been rather short with him. Not exactly rude, but definitely disinterested. But that goblin had been civil to both him and Hermione. He could understand why the goblin was civil to himself. He had money to invest with the bank. But the goblin had no reason to be nice to Hermione, she didn't have anything to offer the bank, well not now at least. Harry couldn't help that something bigger was going on here. He tried pushing the feeling away but failed to when he remembered how goblins were considered to be even more cunning than most Slytherins.

"So what's the plan here?" Harry asked.

"It's simple you go down to your vault and get what you want and come back up here."

"That's not a plan."

"It's not like we know what's in the vault or how much you can get out. Just get what you feel is important. Also it's not like you can't come back here. We could always visit again before coming back to school."

That had made Harry feel a little better. That if he missed something important he could always come back. Harry took a deep breath trying to calm himself.

"Don't worry everything is going to be fine." Hermione said in a slightly forced voice. She must have also felt confused by the civil treatment the goblin had given her.

Harry gave a reluctant look and started walking towards the room to do the blood test. He felt ridiculous, he shouldn't feel this unnerved, but he just couldn't shake the feeling. Something was going to happen here today, he could feel it. He got to room and saw a goblin he recognised.

"Griphook." Harry then quickly wondered if it was the best idea to say his name out loud, given the unreadable look the goblin gave him.

"It is rare for a wizard to call a goblin by his given name, even rarer to remember."

"Oh, I , umm…" Pull yourself together Potter, you spent the summer reading about how to handle situations like this now execute them. " Well, it's rare for me to forget a name." he said neutrally. 'Merlin, I suck at this.' Harry thought to himself.

Griphook didn't give any indication to how he felt towards Harry, instead he went to proceed with the blood test The goblin took of a small knife and bowl with some sort of yellow liquid. Griphook gave Harry the knife and said that it would only require one drop of blood. Harry pricked himself and let his blood fall into the bowl. At first nothing happened, then a misty silver crest appeared, but it was gone before Harry could focus on the details of the crest.

"You are indeed apart of the Potter bloodline. However considering you aren't of age you cannot take any of the fortune that resides in the Potter vault."

"I'm not here for the money, I just wanted to see if there were any personal items from my parents that were placed here during the war. That is if I am allowed to, sir."

"That is acceptable L- Mr. Potter."

On the ride down to his family vault, Harry asked Griphook a question. "Why did I have prove I had Potter blood when in the past I only needed a key?"

"Keys are perfectly acceptable for a trust fund, but family vaults have higher security measures." Griphook said in a patient voice. The uneasy feeling was starting to come back. Why was Griphook being patient with him? He suddenly didn't want to check out the vault. But he had already come so far. So he pressed on.

The cart suddenly stopped in front of a vault with the number 79 in the upper left corner. Griphook grabbed the bowl Harry put his blood in and poured it down on the handle of the vault door. It took a few seconds but the door slowly opened. Harry walked in after Griphook (he didn't want the goblin locking him the vault).

Harry remembered the day he had seen his trust vault. How he had piles and piles of gold that belonged to him. It was a rather awe inspiring and giddy feeling. So when Harry saw that there was about ten times the amount of gold in the family vault compared to his trust, well let's just say the only thought that came to his mind was 'I don't have to work a day in my life if I don't want to.'

"How is it possible that I have this money?" It was a rhetorical question but Griphook answered it anyway.

" You're grandfather was a gifted Potions Master and inventor. He created many potions that were and still are very popular. The Potter vault has never stopped growing, even due to their absence."

Harry nodded numbly, far more interested in the gold in the room. There was just so much, it was hard for Harry to think properly. Eventually he did move on to looking at other things in the vault. He noticed a small trinkets on pedestals, many beautiful looking jewelry, even a few old weapons. But he wasn't here for that. He eventually found in the back corner of the vault exactly what he was hoping for. He saw a large school trunk with the name _Lily_ written in gold cursive. Harry gently took all of the books off the top the trunk so he could look inside.

One look inside and he was not disappointed. On the inside of his mother's trunk were several master level books in both Charms and Potions. But that wasn't what got Harry excited, it was the sheer number of journals his mother had written through her years would be able to find out what his mother had gone through, and hopefully find out more about his mother. While a lot of people would tell him things about his father, no one ever talked to him about his mother. Aside from the fact she was brilliant in Charms. Harry glanced over some of the journals and it looked like she had even written about her life before going to Hogwarts. He wanted to read about her right now, but then he remembered that Griphook was right behind him and Hermione was alone waiting for him. Then Harry looked down at the books that were sitting on top of the trunk earlier.

The first one wasn't even a book, it was a picture album. Filled with mostly pictures of his parents and the other other maudarders in their last few years of Hogwarts. Harry would be looking through that later. Then he picked a very large and very thick book. He turned it over and his breath caught in his throat. The text was titled "The Marauder's Manuel" after skimming through the pages it appeared to be a journal of sorts with stories of their adventures and notes on how the achieved their pranks. He also wondered if this book had a password like the map. He wondered if they wrote about how they created the map and how they became animagi. Harry realised he was wasting time and starting looking through the other books. After going through a few more master level books of Transfiguration and Defence he saw something that didn't belong. A leather bound book that had no title on the cover. Harry hesitated opening it but his curiosity got the better of him. He glanced at the first few pages but it was enough to know exactly what the book was about.

"This is Dark magic! Why is this here?!" Harry said backing away from the book. Griphook snorted behind him. Unfortunately Harry had forgotten that the goblin was still next to him so his snort only startled Harry again.

"Dark magic is funny." Harry said to Griphook, trying to maintain his composure.

" No, it is not, Mr. Potter. I only found your reaction amusing. It was very similar to how your mother reacted when she was handed the book."

What wait.

"You- did you know my mom."

"I and a few other goblins worked with her."

"My mother worked here… like as a curse breaker?"

"No. She was…" Griphook pause trying to find the correct words. "An assistant of sorts."

"How have I never heard that she worked here… I've written a friend of hers(Remus)and he never brought up the fact she worked here."

"No one knew she worked here, most assumed she became an Unspeakable… but she came to work for us instead."

"What did she do here?"

"The specifics are classified, however she was very involved in helping either destroy or nullify dark objects we have collected over the years. She may have hated reading that book Mr. Potter, but she had a much better understanding on how dark magic worked after reading that book. And in doing so, could figure out how to use her own magic to create counters to the dark spells."

"Did, did - were you friends with her?"

"Bah, friends is more of a human word then a goblin one. But I suppose we had somewhat of a close workers relationship. Especially after she became a Potter." Griphook then looked like he had a twinge of sadness in his eyes. "We found many interesting branches of magic in the few things while she was here." Griphook looked Harry directly in the eyes.

"You have her eyes, you know. The same vivid green." Normally when people told Harry that it was with a touch of fondness. When Griphook told him, it sounded like some sort of vital clue. Harry didn't understand why that would be the case. Maybe he was just down here for too long.

"Urm, thanks you for telling me Griphook. So I'd like to take as many of these books with me as possible so if-" Griphook interrupted him when all the books both in and around the trunk few away from Harry and into a muggle looking book bag that was hidden behind a gold pile. Then the bag plopped down next to him.

"All of the books you showed any interest in are in the bag Mr. Potter."

"Oh, thank you. You didn't have to."

"I don't have all day to wait for you pack everything. Come along Mr. Potter." Griphook promptly turned around and headed out of the vault. Not wanting to try his patience Harry went to pick up the bookbag he found that it was no heavier than pillow, 'Featherweight charm' he thought.

We they were both on the cart going back up he looked inside and noticed that the books weren't shrunk like he had thought they would be. The bag had a extension charm on it. Like the one Mr. Weasley put in his car to fit nine people. However through his look through he saw the dark book his mother had apparently read. He want to tell Griphook to take it back but had a gut feeling that the goblin wanted Harry to read this book.

This whole experience had been odd. First the civility Hermione and himself had been given, the strange feeling he got, the dark book, Griphook telling him about his mother, and the whole thing about having similar eyes to his mother… something was going on here- but what.

Harry had said goodbye to Griphook and quickly found Hermione still waiting for him. Harry grabbed her arm before she could say anything to him and dragged her out of Gringotts as quickly as possible.

Once they were out of there Hermione took back her arm and asked "What happened down there? What's got you so frazzled?"

"If I knew I would tell you."

* * *

 **There were no Weasleys in this chapter and that makes me sad. But it's okay, you know why? Cause we will be seeing them next chapter. Hooray! Now onto other things.**

 **Did you like the whole thing about Harry being addicted to gold. I'm pretty sure its cannon. He was distracted a golden cauldron first year and can always seem to spot the snitch. #HarryisaNiffler**

 **I get to start incorporating lore!**

 **Finally I want to point out that I'm not the biggest fan of Harry is super rich tropes. So while Harry is wealthy, he isn't the richest bloke in England. Just wanted to make that clear. He just has a lot of money because no one has spent that money in ten years. So he won't be able to pay for everything to solve his problems.**

 **Until next time.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, I still don't own the Harry Potter series. But I do have a plan to get it. It involves duck tape, a bedazzled steering wheel, a marching band, and 12 cans of silly string. Don't ask.**

The Deal

After leaving Diagon Alley the pair of them had convinced themselves that the goblins were actually acting normal and they were just being paranoid. They took the Knight back to Hermione's house and began to work.

Harry gave Hermione one of the master level Potions book for the expanded bag. While Hermione said she wasn't sure she could handle making potions so advanced, Harry had faith. She did successfully make Poly-juice potion in their second year after all.

Meanwhile Harry was reading the Marauders Manual. He did also try to read the master level defense books, but they all were written with the assumption that the reader already understood NEWT level concepts. So Harry and Hermione were out of luck.

The Manuel was brimming with information. Not only did it contain the secrets on how to take books from the restriction section from the library, but also how they created the Marauders Map( and which books they learned to use paper magic.) And then there was the prank section, which was the largest section of the book. Harry was surprised to find out that most of their prank ideas came from their own experiments of creating their own spells and potions. Then, if their creations turned out it could be used in a possible prank, well… inventors had to have fun to.

However it did seem like the marauders did seem to pick on one person in particular: Snape. Now, Harry knew exactly what he thought of Snape. He was a bully who not only picked on him, but also every Gryffindor in his class. Not to mention he was the one who told everyone that Remus was a werewolf. Not only making Remus lose his job at Hogwarts but also making it next to impossible to get a job in Britain. So yeah, Harry had no sympathy for the guy. But he at least understood why Snape hated him so much after reading prank after prank done to him throughout their school years, well at least until the end of fifth year.(For some reason the Marauders stopped pranking him after that year.)

It was especially troubling after reading his mother's journals. It was a bit of a shock to find out that his mother and Snape had been friends, even before Hogwarts. And he did find out that it seems like his father was the one who started the conflict between himself and Snape. And Harry felt disappointed at his father because it was always four against one. At least with Harry and Malfoy it was always in even match up.

So now, Harry was at a loss. His father was a bully that picked on Snape, and his mother hated his father for picking on her friend. He wasn't sure what had happen to make his mother fall in love with his father. And while Harry wanted to find out what happened with his parents, he also didn't want to read about how horrible his father and Sirius were, at least through his mother's eyes.

However reading his mother's journals gave him a greater understanding of his mother's personality. For all the time he's been in the wizarding world, the only bit of information about his parents were his father was mischievous and his mother was a good student.

Not the best descriptors in the world.

But now he knew what kind of person his mother was. She stood up for what she believed in and let nothing stop her. She was a firm believer in being a good student and did her absolute best in every subject she took. She was a kind hearted person who could make friends with everyone she met. And not to mention her hidden snark and her sneaky side. Harry was pretty sure no one knew how sneaky she could be. She would apparently sneak out of Gryffindor tower a few nights a week and just to learn about the castle. She had yet to be caught.

She was also incredibly smart she had figured out Remus was a werewolf before Yule of their first year. She even helped keep the secret afterwards. She was amazing.

During Harry's last night at the Granger's he was in Hermione's room helping her pack before the Weasleys came to pick them up tomorrow morning.

"She sounds like you, Harry."

"What- no-"

"Here me out, Harry. I'm not saying you're a carbon copy of her but you two do share similarities. She has strong beliefs and never wavers from them. She is kind, however is not afraid to use her wit and magic against those who cross her. She also has a knack for disobeying the rules, but not for any harmful reason."

"So basically you're saying I'm a snarky git who breaks the rules for stupid reasons."

"Glad we're on the same page." Hermione said with an amused twinkle in her eye. "But seriously Harry, you may look like your dad, but I'm pretty sure you share a personality more similar with your mother than your father."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, he does seem to have more of a… flashy personality then I do. At least that's what I'm getting from the Manual." Harry could have simply asked Remus or Sirius more about his parents to get another viewpoint, but then he would have to explain why he had the Manuel and his mother's journals... and why was at Gringotts without an adult.

Hermione then gave Harry a few of the master potion books from her desk for him to put back in his extendable bag. Hermione then went back to packing. Harry looked down at the books and started get… well it wasn't a guilty feeling per se but… it was something along those lines.

" Hey… Hermione."

"Hmm,"

"Is this a good idea…" Harry said looking down at the books. " Are we… Is… How do you feel about this whole thing."

Hermione gave him a quizzical look. "Can you be a little more specific?"

"Earlier today, I saw you creating a coma potion. So if an enemy came towards us, you go throw the vile at him and knock him out and we could run… Are we taking this too far? I mean you, Ron, and I have been working all summer to prepare for war essentially. You've been researching how to attack with magic, Ron has been researching how to predict attacks, and I've been researching how to win any conflict as an underdog and how the human mind works… We're preparing for a war that isn't happening. And while I already asked Ron about this I never asked you… So Hermione, how do you feel about this?"

Hermione stayed silent for a few moments before answer. " Harry… I don't like the idea of training for war anymore than you do but I think we need to do this. So many things have happened to us over the years, and while I loathe to admit it, I don't think it's a coincidence that it's always us. That maybe... it might be fate." She said with a rather annoyed look. She never did like Divination or Trelawny. "But it is more then that, when we were at the lake and the dementor's were attacking us… I felt so useless. I always prided myself with being prepared for any situation… but I couldn't do anything and I blacked out." She started shaking slightly.

"Hermione that wasn't your fault."

"I know it wasn't my fault, but I refuse to have it happen to me again. So to answer your question. I feel like this is the correct choice of action. It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared."

"You're sure?"

"This is my choice Harry, if I didn't want to do this I wouldn't. So stop worrying, we are in this together."

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure you didn't feel forced because Ron and I are doing this."

"I'm not, but thanks for your concern."

"...You're just happy Ron and I are taking are studies seriously, aren't you."

"I'm over the bloody moon." Hermione said in a deadpan voice.

Harry mock gasped. " Since when does the great Hermione Granger swear?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because she's tired, Harry Prat-er" Harry bit back a grin.

"That was a horrible pun, I'm so proud."

" But I did mean it, I'm tired and done packing for tomorrow. I'm going to bed. I suggest you do the same."

Harry noticed that it was almost midnight. " Yeah, you make a good point, goodnight." he said leaving her room.

"Goodnight." Said replied back.

Harry walked back into the guest bedroom and prepared himself for a good night sleep.

* * *

Harry did not get a good night sleep. He was woken up from a nightmare he could hardly remember. He was pretty sure Wormtail, and Voldemort were there. And some old muggle… maybe a snake. The intense throbbing in his scar was not helping him focus on the dream.

Wait. His scar was hurting? Oh that's not good. His scar only hurts when Voldemort was involved… he should probably tell someone about this.

After thinking it through he decided to write a letter to Remus and Sirius, Harry was pretty sure they were in the same location, asking what they thought he should do. Harry thought he shouldn't worry Ron and Hermione about it, but thought they had a right to know. He'll tell them later when they were together. But for right now he should get some sleep.

* * *

It was half past ten when Harry and Hermione were in the living room waiting for the Weasleys to pick them up. Hermione's parents had already said goodbye to them this morning. They would have stayed but there was an emergency at their work. The pair of them simply watched old re-runs of Doctor Who to pass the time.

"Any idea when they're supposed to show up?"

"The letter said they would come pick us half an hour ago by floo…" Hermione answered.

"Maybe they didn't say your address correctly?"

"Maybe."

"Or maybe-" Harry was caught off by the sight of Mrs. Weasley walking out of the fireplace. Even though Harry had been used to the idea of magic for years, he would still sometimes be caught off guard.

"Hello dears, so sorry for the wait, my second oldest son ,Charlie, showed up early this morning and we completely lost track off time."

"It's no problem Mrs. Weasley." Hermione assured.

"Yeah, honestly it's fine."

Suddenly Ron appeared out of the flames. Ron gave both of them hugs. Although Ron hugged Hermione a little longer than necessary in Harry's humble opinion . Harry was pretty sure Ron would have held on longer if Fred hadn't come out of the fireplace and wolf whistled at the pair.

"Fred, be nice." Mrs. Weasley warned.

" What? I haven't even done anything." George said coming out of the fireplace.

Harry, seeing in opportunity, grabbed Ron and Hermione and walked to the kitchen while the other three were playing 'Which Twin Am I'.

"Ron, when's the best time for the three of us to have a _real_ talk?" Harry said, skipping over the pleasantries.

"Well, the safest option would be around sunrise. Everyone would be asleep-but we probably would want to go outside, you know, just to be completely sure no one would overhear us. But it would also be fine to talk in my room, we would have to talk in hushed tones though and we would have to be able to drop a conversation quickly because no one knows how to knock in my family." Ron said as quickly and quietly as possible.

"Let's just talk tomorrow morning." Hermione said. " I don't want to be interrupted and I don't want to take the chance we'll be overheard."

"Yeah, that's what I thought we would want to do, but I wanted us to have options."

"Okay, tomorrow morning around dawn we wake up and talk, bring any notes you want to share and-" Harry was interrupted by Fred and George walking into the kitchen.

"There you guys are." Fred said.

"It's time to go." George said.

The twins ushered them out of the kitchen and back towards the living room. Once back there Mrs. Weasley quickly rushed them out of Hermione's house. She told Fred and George to take either Harry's or Hermione's trunk through the floo. Which Harry was thankful for, while the trunks may have feather light charms on them, it was really awkward to carry them. But the twins were tall enough that it shouldn't have been a problem for them. Then Mrs. Weasley urged him to go next. But she did seem slightly nervous about it. She was probably thinking back to when he used their floo to go to Diagon Alley but ended up in Knockturn Alley. But he knew what he was doing. Probably.

The next thing Harry knew was that he was falling out of the fireplace at the Burrow. Nailed it.

"Graceful." George said still holding his trunk.

"Thanks, I try." Harry said picking himself up off of the ground.

Then Ron walked out of the fireplace, without falling, and made eye contact with Harry.

"Oh, good you made it."

"You doubted me?"

"No,mom did. She told me if I didn't see you here I was suppose to come right back."

"You mess up one time and you never hear the end of it."

"Oi , you two going to help us with these trunks or not." Fred said from the staircase.

Ron and Harry quickly went to help the twins. The four of them quickly put both Harry and Hermione's trunks in Ron and Ginny's room respectively.

They all made it just in time to greet Hermione just existing the fireplace.

"Sorry for the wait." Hermione said dusting herself off. "Your mother wanted me to double check that I had everything."

Mrs. Weasley existed the fireplace before anyone could remark. Mrs. Weasley quickly locked eyes with Harry and her shoulders relaxed slightly. Harry wanted to roll his eyes, honestly, she worried far too much. But at the same time he did get a warm feeling from the idea that someone cared enough about him to worry.

"Oh it's almost time for lunch! I need to start preparing right away. Harry, Hermione make yourselves at home. If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen." Mrs Weasley said.

"Did you want any help Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked.

" It's sweet of you to ask, dear, but I can handle it." And with that said Mrs. Weasley set off towards the kitchen.

Fred and George waited until their mother was safely out of hearing distance before talking to Harry in a hushed voice.

"As happy as we are that you got out of your relatives place early-"

"We were a bit disappointed that we could test a certain product out on your cousin-"

"But perhaps it's better this way-"

Yes, dear brother, gives us more time to-"

"Experiment and work out the kinks-"

"But anyways, you can still keep the prototype if you wish.

George handed Harry a small cloth bag, When Harry looked inside he found what he assumed were gumballs. But Harry knew the twins better than that. "Uh, what are these?"

Tongue -Ton Taffy that is."

"Use it wisely."

The twins suddenly stopped whispering and went back to talking normally.

"Well, we must be off."

"Things to explode."

"Ta."

The twins then went up the stairs to what Harry assumed was their room. He turned to Ron.

"What was that about?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Those two have been creating pranks all summer. They apparently want to open a prank shop called "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes" or something like that. Mom went ballistic. She gave the twins the whole rant about it. She tried to destroy all of their inventions after finding out they only got three O.W.L.s each.

"Tried?"

"Three!"

Ron decided to address Harry's question first. "The twins are smart. They knew there was a chance Mom might find out about their inventions so they've hidden most of their work in my room and Ginny's, with the understanding that they can't test their inventions on us."

Harry nodded in understanding. Ron then turned to Hermione but she had her own thought she had to voice first.

" Three O.W.L.s!? How is that even possible? As much as I don't want to admit it, the twins are smarter than they let on. So how is- Three! I- what?!

Ron was trying his best to to smile at Hermione utter bewilderment.(It was a very rare occurrence.)

" Hermione, the twins only showed up for three of their O.W.L.s but they did get Os in the ones they showed up to."

Hermione sat down onto one of the Weasley's sofas and started muttering to herself. "They only showed up for three tests…" Harry decided to leave her alone for a few minutes. She needed time to come to terms with it.

"So which three did they get?" Harry asked.

Ron looked up, trying to remember. "I think they both got Os in Charms and DADA… I think one of them got one in Transfiguration and the other in Herbology."

"Really, that's it?" Harry looked down at the Ton-Tongue Taffy. " I would have thought they would have at least taken the Potions O.W.L."

"They said that they didn't want Snape as a teacher anymore and could learn better outside his classroom."

"Okay that's fair."

"Oh by the way, we shouldn't mention our cover story, you know, the one about studying for O.W.L.s , mom already brings it up time to time about how I 'm such a good student and that the twins could learn something from me… it's gotten very annoying… so could we not bring it up?"

"Not a problem with me." Harry said. Ron then looked over to Hermione to make sure she had heard him.

"Hermione?"

"Yes, Yes, I heard. I have no problem with that."

"Okay, cool." Ron stated. Then he looked around to make sure no one was in the room before he whispered " It wouldn't be long, but we could have a short talk right outside by the tree-" Ron was interrupted by two adult redheads walking into the living room.( "Oh for Merlin's sake!" Ron muttered.)

"I blame you for this." The redhead with burnt arms said.

"Me! I'm not the one who got caught." Said the one with long hair.

The two stopped arguing when they noticed they had an audience.

"Trying to nick food while mom wasn't looking?" Ron said not bothering to hide his smile.

"Shut up, Ron."

"Yeah, why don't you be a good host an introduce us to your friends."

Ron rolled his eyes but complied. " Harry, Hermione, these are my older brothers Charlie" Ron gestured to the one with burns, " and Bill" Ron gestured to the one with long hair and an earring. " Bill, Charlie, these are my friends Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

Bill simply nodded and gave them the standard nice to meet you. But Charlie went right up to shake both Hermione's and Harry's hands. " So these are the bastards who pulled it off, you got balls-"

"Charlie! Don't swear in front of them! Mom will skin you alive." Bill said. " And what are you even talking about?"

"Uhh, is it okay to tell Bill?" Charlie asked, realizing his mistake. The trio shared a look.

"Would you tell anyone? Because if you did, it would get Hagrid in trouble." Harry said.

"Oh Merlin, this involves Hagrid." Bill started rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. " I won't tell anyone. What happened?"

" Well apparently these three caught Hagrid with an illegal dragon egg. And instead of contacting a professor or Dumbledore, they write to me- asking if I can smuggle him out." Charlie said with a grin.

" You didn't."

" Of course not, I sent the interns to collect the dragon."

" Charlie! That is not okay!"

" What it turned out fine, right?"

" Well," Hermione began. "We were caught by Mcgonagall and lost 150 points. And given detention."

" But it's not like she found out about the dragon." Harry added.

" And Gryffindor won the house cup anyway." Ron finished.

"That is not the point! Dragons, no matter how young they are, are dangerous! You were lucky that you were poisoned with their bite."

Ron looked down and blushed slightly. Bill noticed.

" You were-"

" It's fine Bill! I'm fine. Madame Pomfrey fixed me right up. Besides this happened years ago. And you promised you wouldn't tell! " Ron said.

"Yeah, that was before we found out you were bitten." Charlie started. " I assumed that Hagrid would have kept you three away from the dragon after she hatched. I assumed that the three of you would have stayed away from it until Hagrid put it into the traveling crate. Clearly I was mistaken. And you! You didn't even write me to tell me what had happened."

" It was healed by the time your letter came back. It didn't seem important."

"That is no excuse!" Charlie said. "You could have died from that bite."

"You're exaggerating, the bite would have killed in infant or small toddler, Ron's body was big enough that it would just be a painful, swollen bump for about a week if it was left alone." Hermione cut in. When Hermione looked back at the elder Weasleys she realized that it wasn't the time to show off how smart she was..

" Screw the promise, I'm telling mom and then Dumbledore."

"I will accompany you." Bill said.

"Wait!" Hermione exclaimed. " What if we have a compromise." Harry was taken aback by her telling those two to stop. More importantly he was surprised by the fear in her voice. Fear that he was sure only he and Ron picked up on. But then he remembered, Hermione's parents don't know the truth behind most of their adventures. Following her line of logic, what if the Weasleys and her parents compared notes and found out that their daughter lied to them. Harry started to panic. Obviously the Dursleys wouldn't care about the dangerous situations he was in, but that didn't mean the Weasleys, Remus, or Sirius didn't care. What if the adults split the trio up? Dumbledore was known for his Greater Good philosophy. What if he had the power to split them up at Hogwarts. What if-

Stop.

Panicking isn't going to get you anywhere. Use what you learned over the summer. Bill and Charlie are only acting this way because they're upset that they didn't know their brother got hurt and want to protect him. He needed to address those feelings. Then Harry got an idea.

A very Slytherin idea.

"Look, Bill, Charlie, I understand you're upset. I don't blame you. But please hear me out."

Bill and Charlie simply turned back around to face them. They both gave a fierce look that said continue.

"We make a deal. It's rather simple. We ask Madame Pomfrey to specifically write you letters if Ron ever ends up in the hospital wing. And then one of us writes you directly stating what happened." Harry saw that they were starting to crack. He needed just one more little push. " And we tell you if we end up in any kind of adventure outside of school."

Bill and Charlie both had a conversation with their eyes. Harry hoped to anyone listening that they would agree to his terms.

Bill took a deep, calming breath. " I have some terms I would like to add." Harry nodded, hoping that he didn't look worried. " First I want you not only Ron's hospital wing history sheet I want both yours and Hermione's too."

Harry was taken aback by the statement. "Why-" Bill held up a hand telling him to be quiet.

" Because you and Hermione are both honorary Weasleys. It's rare for the whole family to like one person, let alone two. Both of you are part of this family… even if our first conversation did give me a heart attack."

Charlie let out a snort. " Yeah, practically the whole family has nothing but positive things to say about the two of you. You're a Weasley whether you like it or not." And with that most of the tension left the room.

"So we are in agreement then, the three of you will convince Madame Pomfrey to send us letter if any of you end up in the hospital wing and you also have to write to both of us stating why you ended up there." Bill said.

" And we also tell you of any adventures outside of school." Harry finished quickly.

" Yes, I can agree to those terms, Charlie."

"Sounds reasonable." Suddenly Charlie took out his wand and said 'Plurimum consequuntur'. The trio looked confused, it was a spell none of them had ever heard.

"It's a charm that will alert the castor if someone breaks their end of the deal." Bill explained to the three. "It's a more preferred option then making an Unbreakable vow. It's not that we don't trust you, we just want to make sure you're holding up your end of the bargain."

* * *

It was a bit awkward leaving but somehow Ron had managed to drag Hermione and Harry behind a tree in his backyard.

" I'm sorry." Ron said suddenly. I figured Bill would just laugh the dragon story off. I didn't expect him to go all mother hen on us. And I've never seen Charlie act like that either. Merlin, this is all my fault."

"It's not your fault Ron," Hermione said. " Harry and I also agreed to telling Bill."

"It doesn't matter anyway, those two may leave us alone for now, but I know they will be watching us like hawks later. And now we have some sort of spell on us that will let them know if we don't follow the deal...Not to mention we won't be able to have a safe conversation until we get to Hogwarts."

"I can wait a few weeks to talk, what I'm worried about is the deal we made with them. We have to send reports about our injuries and any information of what we do at Hogwarts- they're going to know something is up." Hermione said.

"That's where you're wrong." Harry interrupted. " When I made the deal I only specified that they would ONLY know about the injuries we went to Madame Pomfrey to fix. Not just any old injury. Second, we would tell them about the adventures OUTSIDE of school. I never said anything that we would tell them about the adventures INSIDE the school.

"Brilliant." Ron said.

"While I agree with Ron, what if they catch on to the loopholes in their deal and want to void it. What are we supposed to do then, because I for one don't want to be taken off guard again."

" They won't void the deal. They only took the deal because they knew that if they didn't we would not only resent them but also probably keep any problems to ourselves and not get the proper help they think we might need. As for if they find out about our future training... Ron, you know them better then we do… do they have any… weakness, something that would help us win the argument?" Harry said.

"... I don't know if it would win us an argument… but…when we were all younger, if Ginny had done something bad Bill would tell that she was in trouble. However if she started crying Bill would almost immediately soften up on her. But I don't know if crying would work on Charlie.

" We can work with that. But for now, Hermione, you need to learn how to cry on command." Harry said.

"What! I can't- I'm not a good actress."

"We'll help you learn. Besides it would be a very helpful skill to learn!"

"Yeah! Most people bend over backwards to get a girl to stop crying. We could use that!" Ron said.

Hermione sighed. "... Fine, but if I am unable to do this, you two cannot tease me about it."

"Done."

"Okay, let's recap." Harry said. " With Bill and Charlie around we can't talk openly about what we learned over the summer or our future plans. So we have to wait until we go to Hogwarts. We have to tell them if we end up in the hospital wing, so the first thing we should probably learn is healing magic. It's our safest bet at the moment. Then we can learn more offensive spells in our spare time. Finally we aren't allowed to go on any adventures OUTSIDE of school. I don't know about you but I'm not complaining."

"Hear, hear." Ron joked.

" Okay, we have a plan that's good." Hermione said. "... But still if the two of them do find out what we're doing?"

" We'll hopefully we'll be seventeen and they can't tell us what to do."

"And if we're not seventeen?"

Harry sighed. " We tell them the truth… or at least the bare minimum of the truth and hope they don't tell anyone…"

None of them knew it at the time. But this was only the first obstacle they would face to make their allegiance closer and more secretive.

The trio, having nothing left to say, just sat around, enjoying the summer sun and each others company.

Mrs. Weasley then called the trio in for lunch about 30 minutes of them just lying on the grass. All of the other Weasley brothers were already seated. Harry took his his seat beside Ron and Hermione, wondering where Ginny was, when Mr. Weasley came out of the fireplace with a gigantic grin on his face.

" Hello, family!" He said happily while kissing his wife on the cheek.

"Arthur, what are you doing here?"

" I got to take in early lunch break. Which is fantastic because I have big n- where's Ginny?"

" She's at Luna's house dear. " Mrs. Weasley explained.

" Oh, well we'll just have to tell her later."

"Tell her what?" Bill asked.

"That all of us are going to be seated in the Top Box for the Quidditch World Cup!"

Everyone was silent for a moment before everyone burst into excited cheers.

* * *

 **Fun Fact: The** **original** **idea was for Bill to simply laugh off the trio's story for the dragon. My how things change. ( I think I just have a thing for over protective Weasleys.)**

 **Now some of you might think Bill and Charlie may have over reacted. A fair point. But let's put it this way, Bill is the oldest of seven- it's practically been his job to take care of his younger siblings his whole life, so of course he'd freak out if his baby brother got hurt. And Charlie works with dragons. He has the burns to prove how dangerous they can be. That's why he only freaked out after he found out Ron got hurt. So I personally believe that their reactions were justified.**

 **Also I wanted to address one of the comments. I am aware that the story is rated M,there is a reason for that, you simply must be patient young grasshopper. (And no, it's not rated M because it's a lemon. I don't write lemons. I read them, just don't write them.)**

 **And finally, we will get into some heavy lore soon, at most 3-4 chapters. But it is coming.**

 **Until next time.**

 **Also I just looked at my stats. Holy crow, a lot of people have favored/followed my story. Thanks for giving this idiot a chance!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Do I really need to keep putting up "I don't own this" disclaimers or is it more of an understood thing by now?**

The Quidditch World Cup

There was a palpable excitement all around the Weasley house. Everyone couldn't wait for the World cup to begin. It wasn't just the surprise that Mr. Weasley managed to get tickets, it was the fact he got tickets for the Top Box at the Quidditch World Cup! Everyone was very excited- even the twins and Percy were getting along.

But even through the excitement, the trio were still on edge. Not because they were in danger. More to do with the fact that they knew Bill and Charlie were watching them. Ron had been right. Those two wouldn't leave them alone forever. It wasn't obnoxious or anything but it was a bit concerning that the three of them were never alone together for more than a few minutes.

However, Harry did manage to get Ron and Hermione alone to tell them two things. First was the whole nightmare that caused his scar to burn. While both of them did freak out, they agreed they should wait for Remus's and Sirius's response before they did anything. Second was the strange relationship his mother had with Snape. Both Ron and Hermione wanted Harry to read more about it. At first he thought it was because they just wanted to know what happened between the two. But then he realized that wasn't the reason, his friends simply wanted him to read more about his mother because it made Harry happy. He was truly grateful to have the best friends in the world.

But it's not like he had a lot of time to read at the Burrow. With Mrs. Weasley waking the whole family up at eight in the morning and then being surrounded by all the other Weasleys until almost midnight... there really wasn't a good time for Harry to be reading his mother's secret journals. Ron and Hermione also had to cut back on the reading. Considering they were reading some pretty heavy stuff, they didn't want to take the chance that Bill or Charlie would find out.

They only managed to read about one hour in the morning before breakfast. It was a pain to go through, but they weren't taking any risks. But it wasn't a total waste. They did manage to get in a lot more exercise. But the three were smart enough to cleverly disguise the fact that they wanted to work out. Running excessively was Harry and Hermione teaching the Weasleys about the wonderful muggle game of tag. In which they found out that Harry was not only the fastest of the bunch, but also had the most stamina. Another time Ron challenged Harry to a push-up competition, which later Hermione was "forced" to participate in. (Ron won) As well as pull up and sit up competitions.( Hermione won both of those. Who knew tree climbing would have given her such an edge against the boys.) No one had any suspicious thoughts about the trios sudden passion for exercise. They just assumed it just a friendly rivalry For once, luck was in their favor.

Finally the morning of the Quidditch World Cup was upon them. Well, morning was pushing it. The sun hadn't even risen yet. But it wasn't much of an issue for Mrs. Weasley to wake up the trio, they were used to waking up early. However Ginny, Fred, and George took a lot more time to get out of bed.. Hermione had to practically carry Ginny to her seat at the table. Mrs. Weasley had made them a delicious and filling breakfast, how she was able to wake up much earlier than them and still have a chipper attitude, Harry didn't know. But she did.

"Okay, kids. Two things, first I'll be going to Diagon Alley today so give me your school supply lists and I'll get them with no problem. Second You'll all be leaving for the Cup in ten minutes. Make you have everything you want to take with you." Mrs. Weasley said.

" Wait, what about Bill, Charlie, and Percy?" Fred asked.

"Oh, they're having a bit of a lie in-"

This seemed to have waken Ginny up completely. " How come they get to sleep in?"

" They're all old enough to apparate and they will see you later. Now all of you get ready. And bring me your lists"

Ginny did not look happy, she marched back upstairs getting her supply list. The other five teens went up to their respective rooms and got their lists. However Ginny still hadn't come down.

When Mr. Weasley came down a little later wearing his best muggle attire. Which Harry and Hermione had to confirm that he looked very much like a muggle. They all waited several minutes before Ginny finally came down stairs with the single most innocent smile he had ever seen. Ginny had given her list to her mother with a quick "It was under my bed" and walked right over next to Harry and Ron.

"What did you do?" Ron asked quietly enough that only Ginny and the trio could hear.

"Nothing that _you_ need to worry about." Ginny replied sweetly.

"Alright ," Mr. Weasley said. " We've got a bit of a walk if we're going to make it to the World Cup."

"Wait. We're walking to the World Cup? Is it really that close?" Harry asked confused.

"No, we just need a reach Portkey." Mr. Weasley answered, liked it explained everything. Harry gave Ron a helpless look.

" It's a way of travel, kind of like floo powder."

"Oh."

Mr. Weasley kissed his wife goodbye and the seven were off.

All seven of them managed to walk all the way to the Portkey, even if everyone besides the trio was a little winded after climbing the last hill.

"Okay kids, now look around for the Portkey. It is usually something unobstructive, like litter. Something that muggles wouldn't nose around."

And with those vague instructions Mr. Weasley gave them, they all split off looking for… something. They all stopped in their search through when they heard an unfamiliar male voice.

"Arthur! The Portkey's over here."

They all walked towards the voice. While walking towards the man, Harry did noticed someone he did recognize,Cedric Diggory. Harry liked Cedric, last year several dementors attacked him during a Quidditch match.( Don't ask.) Harry had passed out, and sometime before Harry hit the ground, Cedric had caught the snitch. But the Hufflepuff seeker had demanded a rematch when he found out the Harry had been taken out of the game. Cedric was a good guy. Although, his father on the other hand…

" Good to see you Arthur. Those all yours?"

" Only the red heads Amos. The other two are my youngest son's friends, Hermione and Harry ."

"Harry- Harry Potter?"

This began a whole conversation about how Cedric beat the great Harry Potter in a Quidditch match. Normally people would thank him on "defeating the Dark Lord" and on one very rare occasion, bow to him. However Mr. Diggory went with a different tactic.

"Er, uh, yes."

"Oh Cedric has told me all about you. About how how you competed against each other last year. From what I heard it was a great match. But in the end my son did beating you in the match-"

"Dad," Cedric interrupted. " The dementors attacked him and he fell off his broom."

" Ah, but you didn't fall off your broom."

"I would have if the dementors had surrounded me." Cedric muttered under his breath.

" Oh, always the humble one, my son."

Mr. Diggory went on to talk about how amazing his son was for the next couple of minutes. How he managed not to notice his son blushing profusely and rubbing his temples, Harry didn't know.

Personally, Harry also felt awkward with what Mr. Diggory was saying. Mostly because he felt bad for Cedric. He saw that Hermione was trying to give Cedric a sympathetic smile, while Ron was looking mighty interested at the grass. Fred and George were using all there self control not to tell Mr. Diggory that Gryffindor still won the house cup. The pair almost let him have it but Harry gave a look telling them not to make it worse. Ginny was just trying her best not to laugh at the entire situation, especially since Mr. Diggory had started telling a story about Cedric when he was a toddler. Cedric's whole face was scarlet.

Finally Mr. Weasley came to rescue when he said, " Oh Portkey leaves in less then a minute. Everyone just needs to touch it with a finger." Mr. Weasley mostly said that for Harry and Hermione's benefit. It was a bit crowded for all nine of them but they all were touching the portkey, an old brown boot, Mr. Diggory was holding.

Harry had a funny thought of some muggle walking up the hill only to discover nine people, two adults all huddled around an old boot. He almost laughed, however a strong pull from his navel pulling them towards- well Harry assumed their destination.

Suddenly the pulling stopped, and Harry fell straight to the ground. Although it did make Harry feel a little better that most everyone else fell to. ( Except for Mr. Weasley, Mr. Diggory, and Cedric.)

Everyone got up and the Diggorys and Weasley party left. Although Cedric did apologize for how his father was acting.

Their party of seven had managed to pay for their campground and managed to set up the tents, all without magic. Even though Harry and Hermione did most of the work in setting up camp. Although Harry thought it was worth the work. The tents were like Mary Poppins bag, much, much bigger on the inside.

Then Mr. Weasley asked if the trio would go get water from the tap. They jumped at the chance. The three of them managed to get about one hundred feet from their campsite before started whispering to them about what they should do.

" Do you think we should have a _talk_ here? I mean, Bill and Charlie are still at the Burrow and we probably won't have another chance like this again until Hogwarts."

"As much as I would like to _talk_ , I don't want to risk anyone over hearing us." Hermione said.

"Yeah, I'm with Hermione," Ron said. "As much as I don't want to wait until Hogwarts, we have to be careful. The last thing we need is some bloke over hearing us and running to the Daily Prophet claiming that the Boy Who Lived and his friends are plotting to take over the world."

Harry nodded. " Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, just wanted to get your opinions to see if it was worth the risk."

"Okay, how about this." Ron started. " School is less than two weeks away, and since we won't talk about any of our progress until then… what if we just took a break. We've been working our asses off all summer, so how about we just not worry about needing to talk, learning in secret, finding stupid reasons to exercise so my family doesn't get suspicious… Let's just enjoy ourselves for these next few days."

Harry thought it over. "That's a good point. We're going to burn out if we keep trying to do this."

"I have no problems with it. It's been stressful trying to do research with Ginny in the same room as me. I have to keep looking back at her because I thought she had woken up… Yes, I'm perfectly fine with taking a break until school."

With all of them in agreement the trio went off, trying to enjoy the World Cup to the fullest.

* * *

Percy Weasley was woken up by his alarm… which was strange considering his mother normally woke him up when he was at home…

'Oh that's right.' he thought to himself. ' She said she would be in Diagon Alley getting his siblings, Harry and Hermione's school supplies.' He hated to admit this but he hated how he acted in the mornings. It takes him forever to fully wake up. He had to bribe his dormmates with free tutoring so they wouldn't tell anyone.( Mostly the twins, they would have a field day with that.)

Percy wasn't sure how long he was lying in his bed, but one look at the clock told him he had to wake up. ' Half past nine' But it wasn't like he was complaining. This was the latest he's slept in for months. But of course good things all must come at a price.

"Oh for fucks sake!" Percy heard Charlie scream through his bed room walls. "Demons! When I get my hands on you…"

Percy wondered what Fred and George did this time when he looked in the mirror. He didn't have to wonder anymore. His skin was dull green while his hair was neon yellow.

"Oh come on!" Percy shouted at nobody in particular. But Charlie must have heard him because he immediately came into his room.

"They get you too?" Charlie asked. His skin was currently dark navy with bright pink hair.

"What do you think?" Percy asked rhetorically.

"Just asking. Anyway do you have any antidote to this or are we just screwed?"

Percy just rolled his eyes at his older brother. He grabbed his old school cauldron and started making the antidote. Luckily it would only take ten minutes.

But that got Percy thinking, Fred and George haven't used pranks like this in years. They were "too simple" in the twins opinion.

Percy was brought out of his train of thought by Charlie muttering. " How did they do it? You and I both put wards up so those two couldn't enter at all…"

'Oh right' Percy thought. Ever since he could do magic legally at home he's warded his prankster brothers out of his room. It's been wonderful. But back to the topic at hand.

" Maybe they forced one of the others two come in and do it?"

Percy didn't think so. " No, Hermione doesn't approve of pranks, the twins are nice to Harry and wouldn't force him to do anything, Ron hates the twins pranks as we do, and nobody can tell Ginny what to do."

Charlie deflated and Percy couldn't blame him. The idea of the twins breaking down their wards that was specifically meant to keep them out was troubling…

" Oh bloody hell!" Bill exclaimed form his room. Percy and Charlie shared a look. Why were they looking at each other? Because they wanted to make sure they heard that correctly. There was no way Bill was also pranked. It was the twins only rule. They just didn't prank Bill. Why? No one was sure. It was just the twins strange rule system they placed for themselves.

Clearly Charlie didn't believe his ears. " Bill… were you pranked?"

"Yes. Is there an antidote around?"

" I'm making it now." Percy said stirring the potion. " It's almost done."

" Be right down."

Percy and Charlie shared another look. Bill WAS pranked… Maybe the twins didn't pull the prank. So who was it? Ron? No, Hermione would never let him. Harry? No, again, Hermione wouldn't let that happen.

Oh no. That only left one person.

Bill walked in with his pink skin and pure white hair. "Guys I don't think Ginny liked the fact that we got to sleep in while she didn't." He handed his brothers a piece of parchment the read "If my morning sucks then your morning is going to suck. Love your favorite baby sister."

" Oh shit what are we going to do." Charlie asked.

Percy looked to his brother for guidance, hoping he would have an answer.

" I don't know." That was the last thing Percy wanted to hear.

" Come on you have to have some kind of idea." Charlie demanded.

" All of my ideas of getting her back only lead to more negative consequences for us."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

" If we tell Mom and Dad what she did she'll get in trouble- however the twins will find out about it and might recruit her. Something I'm sure would lead to some sort of civil war between us." Percy thought he was being over- dramatic but he understood the point. The twins didn't need any more help with their pranks.

" SO what? We- We just do nothing?" Charlie asked.

" We don't have much of a choice. Besides I'm pretty sure she has dirt on all of us, so what needs to happen is that the three of us need to make some sort of agreement with her so she won't do something like this again… I'll think of something."

" She started this, so now we need to appease her just to end it?"

" I don't see you coming up with any other suggestions." Bill said.

" Done." Percy said, trying to stop their upcoming argument. The three of them conjured goblets and drank. It tasted awful but it got the job done. The were back to their normal selves again.

" Look," Bill started " I know we want Ginny to get some sort of consequences for pranking us but this has to be done with caution. We all know this. Just give me some time and let me handle this, okay? I work with Goblins for a living. I know how to make a deal." Percy imagined Bill meant to say it with more confidence, but his tone came off a bit pathetic. Not that he blamed him. If there was one thing every Weasley brother knew, it was to never upset Ginny. She was truly her mother's daughter. Percy did not envy Bill, but was certainly happy that he wasn't going to be the one to comfort her.

* * *

The trio eventually came back with some water after a while. There were a LOT of familiar faces at the camp. Cho, Seamas, Dean, and many other classmates. The trio all silently agreed it was nice to just enjoy the moment instead of worrying about the future.

For the most part the trio just played (muggle) games with the other Weasleys. Mr. Weasley was having a blast playing. However he couldn't play for long, many of Mr. Weasley's fellow Ministry friends kept popping to talk to him. It seemed like Mr. Weasley knew everyone at the Ministry. Which would explain how he was able to score nine top box tickets.

Around ten in the morning Bill, Charlie, and Percy apparted in. And for some reason Harry didn't understand why they were all giving Ginny annoyed looks but he didn't question it. It was most likely a sibling thing neither he nor Hermione understood.

After a few more hours of goofing around, betting their life savings ( Fred and George), and making lunch the muggle way. The ten of them started walking to their seats. It took forever to make it towards the top, but it was well worth it. The view was spectacular. They would be able to see everything from up here.

Of course there were downsides to having the top box. Now Harry could complain that the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was treating Harry like an old friend. Which Harry found really weird, but he didn't arrest Harry last summer after blowing up his aunt so he didn't say anything. The Bulgarian Minister also seemed to know who he was… for the most part everyone else was pretty cool. Well, Mr. Crouch's house elf Winky was a bit odd. But the only other house elf Harry had met was Dobby, so Winky was down right normal in comparison.

The game set to start- 30 seconds ago? Harry wondered why Mr. Fudge and Mr. Bagman hadn't started the game. Especially because the crowd only seemed to get louder with every passing second. Harry looked around and he thought he figured out why it was being delayed. Three seats were still empty. Which only served to annoy him. Who the hell thought they were so important that they would hold up the Quidditch World Cup? In hindsight the answer was obvious.

The Malfoys. Who else would it have been? The glided into the Top Box like they were expecting to be worshiped for showing their faces. And well that's exactly what Minister Fudge did. He greeted them like how most would treat royalty. Harry knew that the Malfoys were rich but the way Fudge was bending over backwards for them… maybe Draco WAS more of a threat then he thought. Something he really need to learn more about…

Somehow Fudge asked if Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley were acquainted. Harry had a suppressed the urge to laugh. The last time they were "acquainted" was when Mr. Weasley started a fist fight with Malfoy before their second year.

Harry decided to save Mr. Weasley the trouble for answering. " Oh, we're acquainted all right." Harry said in a bright, happy voice. " In fact Draco and I are in the same year, and also both play seekers on are respected house Quidditch teams. I hope you had a good summer, Draco." The last sentence was directed at all of the Malfoys. It was Harry subtle way of saying 'You want to start something or do you want to keep your reputation in check?' He could tell they all caught on to it by the quick glare they sent at him. However his father did respond by gripping Draco's shoulder, clearly telling him to answer in a civil way. "It was a lovely summer, thank you for asking." The pure disgust Harry saw in Draco's eyes filled him with such glee that he didn't have to force a smile when he said " That's good to hear."

The conversation was cut short when Fudge noticed that the game should probably start. Fudge told Ludo Bagman to start the commentary. He announced the teams mascots while Ron and Hermione pulled Harry down to talk to him.

" What was that about mate?" Ron asked.

" We've been handling the Malfoy situation all wrong. I've come up with a much better idea then just arguing with the git so Snape can give us detention."

" What's that?" Hermione asked.

" Later." Harry said, after seeing Ginny looking at them with a questioning look.

The other two dropped the topic and instead looked at the mascots. The Irish had these extravagant leprechauns that gave out free gold at the end of their performance. While the Bulgarian's mascot were… they were the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He had to prove his love and devotion to these beautiful creatures. He needed to show an act of love! But what could he do! He should jump off from the Top Box, that would surely get there attention. But would that be good enough?

"Harry! Ron! What are you doing?" A voice Harry found familiar but couldn't place said. Harry didn't linger on that thought though. He was too busy being distraught that mysterious voice had turned him around so now he couldn't see the beautiful women.

That's when Hermione slapped him.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked.

Hermione didn't dignify that with a response. She simply slapped Ron next.

" Bloody hell, Hermione. That hurt."

"Good." Hermione huffed. " You want to tell me why you two thought it was a great idea to jump off from the Top Box. You two could have died."

" We tried to do what?" Harry asked. He didn't remember that.

"I wouldn't be too hard on them, Hermione." Bill said to her. " Veela have that effect on men. They have some sort of aura around them that makes the men around them turn into complete morons."

Harry had thought that these Veela creatures had very similar connections to Sirens from the Greek myths he was forced to read in elementary school.

"Is there a way to fight the Veela aura?" Harry asked.

" The older you get the easier it becomes… of course constantly being around them helps you get use to their aura and can help you build up an immunity."

" And you know this how?" Ron asked.

" Training for Gringotts is not a laughing matter."

And with that Bill went over to check over on his other siblings. Charlie didn't look impressed by the veela. Percy looked like he was getting a headache. Fred and George were being turned around by their father and Bill. While Ginny kept looking at the Veela in awe and was slightly blushing. At some point the Veela were called away, so it was safe to look back towards the stadium.

Fudge must have been under the Veelas charm because it took the Bulgarian Minister to flick him for him to notice his surroundings again. After that , Ludo Bagman started announcing again.

Suddenly nothing else mattered. Harry was about to witness the greatest Quidditch match of his life. Harry was going to enjoy himself at this match and there was nothing that would ruin this.

" And Theeeeeey're off."

* * *

 **Wow. What a happy chapter… this can only lead to good things right?**

 **Now I must ask for some feedback**

 **First did you like the first person point of view of Percy? I wasn't to sure about it.**

 **Second, do any of you have anything to add to my writing style? I'm always hoping to improve and won't be offended.**

 **Third, Did you guys like the comedic style of the prank part of the chapter? I always felt like Ginny was the one who wore the pants in the family so it would be realistic that her brothers were "scared" of her.**

 **Finally if you guys have any suggestions for the fic let me know. I would really appreciate it. Sometimes reading other peoples ideas can help me get over writer's block.**

 **Thank you all for giving me a chance!**

 **Until next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**The rights to Harry Potter, I own not.**

 **This chapter may be rushed… because it is… sorry. But on the bright side it is also the longest chapter I've ever written. So..Pros and Cons.**

After the Game

Victor Krum caught the Golden Snitch but Ireland wins! Who would have guessed? Well, Fred and George did but that's besides the point.

Currently all of the Ireland fans were partying like it was the end of the world, including the Weasley tent, there was music, dancing and Firewhiskey. The firewhiskey was only for those of age, though that didn't stop Fred and George from trying to sneak some.

It truly was a fun time for all. So much so that nobody noticed when Bill grabbed Ginny by the arm and took her outside and into the girls' tent.

"So… thanks for not telling dad about the prank I pulled before the cup…" Ginny said knowing exactly why they were talking.

"Didn't think that one out did you."

"It was early in the morning and I was mad, so no I wasn't thinking clearly. I didn't realize that I could get into serious trouble until I saw you three and dad in the same place. He might have not allowed me to watch the Cup, so thanks for waiting to tell him."

"Awfully bold of you to assume I was going to tell dad… or mom for that matter."

Ginny looked to her eldest brother in confusion. "Uhh, why wouldn't you?"

" You being grounded for a day isn't going to make it up to us."

"Make it up to you- I changed the colors on your body! I only used enough so they would say changed until like ten this before the cup would have started. And besides the cure is something a first year could make."

"That is not the point. The point is you did something petty and childish because of an ability you aren't old enough to do yet."

"So why not tell dad, or mom for that matter?"

" Because you're the favorite and you wouldn't be grounded for more than a day."

"I am not the favorite!"

Bill was surprised by the tone. Did she actually think she wasn't the favorite? Well, he guessed that was a good thing. It was far better that she didn't know.

"Moving on,"

"Moving on, nothing. If you aren't going tell mom or dad than why are we even talking about this?"

"Okay, that's enough." Bill said finally. He only had so much time until someone would notice they were missing. He needed to get through this as quickly as possible, "I'm giving you two options either sit down and shut up or I'll show you the reason why Fred and George respect me so much." That was of course a lie. Bill had no idea why they respected him. But Ginny didn't know that.

She looked at her eldest brother with a slight look of fear. Bill could see the wheels turning in her head trying to decide what the best course of action. She gave a huff and started walking over to to a small chair and sat down. She looked to Bill with her arms crossed and said with an annoyed voice " What's this about?"

" I need you to do two things for me." he said, not wanting to beat around the bush. "First I need you to tell me as much as you know about Harry, Ron and Hermione."

"... Why?"

"My reasons are my own."

"They're in the next tent over, why not ask them personally." she said catching on to what Bill wanted to know.

"Because I know they won't tell me anything of substance, now tell me what you know."

Ginny sighed. After playing chess with Ron for so many years, she knew a losing battle when she saw one.

"Look, Bill I don't know a lot… they're pretty secretive."

" Just tell me what you know."

"... I've heard some things from Ron, and some other rumors hanging around…"

Ginny held her hands tightly. She wasn't sure how to feel. She felt like if she told Bill she would be betraying the trio's trust, on the other hand she knew she could trust Bill ... Even though she was not happy with him at the moment.

"Ginny, what do you know?" She was quiet for a moment before relenting.

"... I wasn't there for their first year so I only know what Ron told me… He said that before Hermione started being friends, the three of them and Neville Longbottom were sneaking out at night to do… I think a wizard's duel. Hermione was trying to stop them and Neville just tagged along. Uhh, they saw Filch and made a run for it. They somehow went into a locked room with a cerberus. It was asleep at the time so they all made it out unharmed.

"On Halloween , Ron said something mean about Hermione that she had overheard. She cried in one of the girls' bathrooms for hours. Then, somehow, a troll made its way into Hogwarts. Ron and Harry realized Hermione didn't know about the troll. So they went to warn her. It was too late though, the troll was in the same bathroom as her. So Harry decided to jump on the troll's back to distract him, while Ron cast the levitation charm on the troll's club and knocked him out. Then-"

Bill gave her a hold on gesture. He needed some time to process this new information. You mean to tell him that when those three were first years, they met a man eating dog and a troll within their first two months at Hogwarts!... And why wasn't he aware of this… " Ginny continue,"

She was throw off by the voice, she didn't know exactly what the emotion was behind it other than intense. " Uhh, at some point they heard the name of Nicolas Flamel and figured something of his was hidden under a trapdoor in the celebrus. A few months later they found out about the philosopher's stone. Then about a week before summer break, they all figured out that the stone was going to be stolen that night. They went to Mcgonagall but she didn't believe them, and Dumbledore wasn't there so they decided to get it themselves.

"They were too late though, someone else was in front of them. They made it through some kind of plant barrier, got a flying key needed to open a door, then there was a giant chess match that they won. But Ron sacrificed himself in the game and got knocked out. Then Hermione and Harry moved on and Hermione solved Snape's riddle. But for some reason Hermione didn't join Harry into the last room. So he faced You-Know-Who alone. I was never told what happened but Harry did spend several days in the hospital wing unconscious and a few more recovering. And that's all I was told about their first year."

Bill gave her another hold on gesture, he really needed to think. So she didn't know everything that happened. If she did she would have mentioned the dragon since she had no problem talking about the other dangers those three were in that year. Which only made him wonder what else she didn't know.

And there was what she did know, it was choppy and left a lot of gaps. If Bill had to guess she was told these things through letters over a period of time. Which would make sense, Ginny and Ron were somewhat close, at least when they were younger anyway. It would stand that Ron would tell her some things about what was happening at Hogwarts… Okay let's move on to third year- Bill knew better then to ask about their second year considering who he was asking. " Okay, so about their thi-"

"Second year was a mess." Ginny said. Her voice was in a very controlled voice. She was clearly trying her best not to cry.

" First those three get caught being the only ones around with a message written in blood on the walls, and then they were blamed for killing Mrs. Norris. She wasn't dead though. Then there was the whole dueling club where Harry got outed as a parselmouth. Then everyone starting blaming him for the petrifications and being the heir of Slytherin , then Harry got the diary which I had to steal back. Then Hermione got petrified. The one upside was that most everyone got their heads out of their asses and realized that Harry wouldn't petrify his best friend. So they started to leave him alone. Then I get... then Harry saved my life with Hermione and Ron's help. " Ginny said, talking faster and higher with each sentence.

Ginny then curled in onto herself. Bill knew what to do. He simply hugged her silently supporting her. She didn't cry but she was shaking. Bill subconsciously started rubbing her back, while he started thinking. Ginny had just told him about her first year. She had never been able to talk about her first year before! He was well aware that Ginny had been given a diary that had once belonged to the Dark Lord. It took over her mind and made her do horrible things.

And with that traumatic experience, their parents agreed that she should see a mind healer. And even though she did put forth an effort to get better, it didn't turn out well. She practactly shut down after the first meeting. She didn't talk to anyone and slept all day. The second visit caused the same reaction. It was then the mind healer said that it would be better to wait until she was older and better able to process the events that happened. Their parents reluctantly agreed. However, the mind healer did say that in the meantime did say that she should keep a sketchbook so she could draw out her feelings or something. Normally it would have been a journal… but they all agreed that would make things worse.

She actually wasn't that bad of an artist. Although, for whatever reason she was constantly drawing the Gryffindor fireplace. He did also see a girls bathroom once too. He didn't ask. She would tell him if and when she was ready.

Expect maybe she was better. She managed to talk about her first year with him. Even if it was more about the trio then herself, but hey, progress was progress. He would talk to his parents about getting her to see a mind healer again.

However his mind did a backflip when he started to process what she had told him. Wait Harry was a parselmouth! Hermione was petrified! Harry got his hands on the Dark Lord's diary… oh dear Merlin. Was it too late to back out of this? Probably.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Bill asked, noticing that her shaking had diminished.

"...I don't know."

"That's okay."

"...You still want to know about last year."

"If you want to, it's not necessary." He didn't want her to shut down on him. It was truly horrifying as an older brother to see.

"Well on Halloween," she said trying to calm down. "Sirius Black managed to get into the castle, a few months later he got into Ron and Harry's dorm room during the night and uhh… he left when Ron started screaming." Ginny was keeping something out of that statement. It didn't matter, he could always ask her later or ask Percy, Fred or George.

"Then after final exams the trio were nowhere to be found, we only found out the next day that Sirius Black was captured, but then escaped almost immediately after, and that all three of them were in the hospital wing all night. I don't know what happened, no one does. But it was pretty obvious that those three ran into Black."

Okay, this was interesting. "Ginny, how were they acting after they got out of the hospital wing."

"What do you mean?" She said, she sounded like she was back to normal.

"Just did they do anything… out of character?"

"...Well, I mean they were holed up in the library a lot. I assumed that they wanted privacy after the whole ordeal."

So, Black attacks them and their response was to spend there last few days in the library. Then Ron comes home and finishes all of his homework the first week and starts spending his time reading books too advanced for him. He wasn't stupid, he was aware Ron had read his old curse breaker books.

Bill knew his baby brother wasn't stupid, he just lacked the will power to do his schoolwork. Well, at least he did. Which begs the question, what is currently giving him the motivation now to do it, and more importantly why was he reading about advanced topics...

He had a lot of things to think over. He looked over at his sister. She looked exhausted, he had to wrap up this conversation before she passed out. (She had done it before).

"Thank you for telling me what you know. Now, the second thing I need you to do."

"I was hoping you forgot about that." she muttered under her breath.

"I want you to hear me out and not freak out. Deal?"

"...Deal?" she said slightly concerned

" I want you to watch the trio and report to me if they do-"

" You want me to spy on them!"

"Ginny-"

"No! You can't make me do that!" She made a beeline for the exit.

"Where do you think your going?" Bill said grabbing her arm.

"Away from you." she said trying and failing to get her arm free.

"You said you would hear me out."

"That was before you wanted me to become a snitch."

"Ginny listen to me." he said with a quiet intensity. She slowly stopped fighting for her arm. "Thank you. Look, I'm not asking you to spend all of your free time watching them. I just want you to tell me if they are sneaking out after curfew, getting detentions, things like that."

"Why?"

"Because I'm concerned. I don't know what the staff think they're doing but those three have been in danger for every year they've been in Hogwarts. I want to help them because it seems like no one else will."

"...Good reasons… but it won't work."

"I don't care if it won't work, I have to try something."

"By blackmailing me... not to mention they'll end up hating you if they find out that your using me to spy on them."

"Rather they resent me and have them safe then like me and leave them on their own."

"...Okay, fine, I'll do it. If I notice anything I'll write you about it."

"Promise me." Bill said taking out his wand, "Promise on your magic."

Ginny got serious look on her face. Promising on your magic was not something to take lightly. While you wouldn't die if you betrayed the promise,like an Unbreakable oath, your magic would weaken and alert the other person, Bill in this case, that you went back on your word. Your magic would only go back to normal if the other person allowed it to happen. Which she knew that Bill would… but still.

"Bill, this seems like overkill-"

"Ginny promise me… please."Ginny picked up the slight desperation in his voice. She reluctantly grabbed onto Bill's wand.

"...Okay… If I notice Ron, Harry or Hermione doing anything I'll write to you, I promise." Both siblings could feel their magic reacting to the promise.

"Thank you, I know you don't like this, but it's for the best…" Bill said at his very exhausted sister. " You should go to sleep, you look like you're about to pass out."

Ginny nodded and shooed Bill out of the tent so she could change.. If she knew pranking them would result in a night like this, she would have never done it. Honestly, he not only guilted her, but also used her exhaustion to his advantage.

Now she had to spy on the often called "Golden Trio". It made her feel dirty, nevermind that it was for their own "protection".

She wasn't sure she would even be able to do it. Ron and her were really close. Yeah, they made fun of each other a lot, but it came from a place of love. Also it was nice to have someone in the family that was comfortable enough with her to tease her. Everyone else was too afraid to her hurt feelings.(Beside Fred and George, but they don't count. Then make fun of everyone.)

Hermione and her weren't best friends or anything, but they got along. And Hermione was a hard worker and very smart. Ginny admired her.

And then there was Harry. She used to have a gigantic crush on the Boy-Who-Lived, now… she wasn't sure. She definitely still had feelings for him, but she wasn't sure what they were. It could be gratitude for saving her life… it could be love for saving her life… maybe it was just appreciation for never bringing up the fact he had saved her life and treated her like a friend… she didn't know. Her mind was messed up.

She really didn't want to this, but she had made a promise to Bill, her magic wouldn't let her back out of this now.

She had just laid down in her bed when a thought came to her. Wait… I only promised that if I _notice_ anything that she would tell Bill about it… Well guess who's going to spend her time at Hogwarts avoiding the trio like a plague.

* * *

At some point Mr. Weasley told everyone to go to bed. Harry thought it would be hard considering all the noise coming from everyone else in camp celebrating Ireland's win. But the moment Harry hit the pillow he passed out. It didn't last long though.

"-get up. You need to get up now! Harry wake up!" Harry was awoken by Mr. Weasley loud, yet scared voice.

"Dad, what's going on?" Ron asked his father, who was currently shaking Fred awake.

"Get up now! This is urgent!"

Harry, Ron, Fred, and George were quickly ushered out of the tent, where they met Ginny and Hermione who looked as confused as they did.

"What's happening?!" Ginny yelled, trying to make herself heard over the screaming around her.

"There's been an attack." Mr. Weasley responded. Harry looked around and saw what he was talking about. There were a few dozen men dressed with long black robes and masks, firing spells at what looked like four people flying in the air. But upon closer inspection it was two adults and two young children. The masked men were laughing and jeering at the people they were swinging around the air.

"That's sick." Ron said in a disgusted voice. "Really, really sick."

That was when Bill, Charlie, and Percy came running out of the tent and towards the masked men.

"We're going to help the Ministry. You lot- all of you need to go into the woods and stick together. I'll find you when this is all over. Go!"

Fred grabbed Ginny and started to run with George right behind them. The trio followed their lead. It wasn't easy to follow them though. It was dark and there were many other people around them panicking.

That was when Ron gave a yell of pain. Hermione lit her wand to see that Ron had fallen.

"Damn, I tripped on a stupid root."

"With feet that size, it's hard not to."

Three of them turned, fully aware of who had just spoken. There, standing utterly relaxed at them, was Draco Malfoy. Harry turned to see where he was looking. If you looked just right, you could easily see the muggles being flung around. Harry was revolted.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Malfoy?" Ron spat at the blond.

"Language Weasley," Malfoy said amused. "Anyway shouldn't you be getting _her_ out of here, you wouldn't want her to be spotted now, would you?"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione demanded.

"They after muggles, Granger. Do you want to be blasted into the air, because if you do stick around they're coming this way and it would be hilarious to see."

Hermione had to hold Ron back. Which Harry was grateful for. Him yelling and attack Malfoy had never worked out in the past. Harry knew Malfoy wanted them to react, to be angry, to fight back. But this time Harry wasn't going to do wanted to catch the Slytherin off guard. He had already tried out his new technique in the top box to a great success. Let's see if it would work again.

"Draco, I'm touched that you would risk your own neck to try and save Hermiones."

"What are you talking about Potter!"

"You are willing to stand here in the line of fire, to help save those who would have otherwise been attacked." Harry said this with as much praise as his voice could muster while slowly getting closer to Ron and Hermione. "We'll be sure to tell everyone of your heroic deeds, Draco. Everyone will know the name ; Draco the Muggle Helper!"Then, Harry sprinted off with Ron and Hermione close behind him.

"Did you see his face?" Ron said not bothering to hide his laugh.

"You know he's going to try and get us back" Hermione said trying to tame her smile.

"We'll be ready." Harry said. "But on a more important matter. Do you guys know who those people in masks are?"

"You don't know- Harry those were Death Eaters. You-Know-Who's followers." Ron told him.

"What?" Harry was surprised not to mention angry. So Sirius is stuck in Azkaban for over a decade while over 30 real Voldemort supporters are running free, still causing mayhem. Harry was pissed to say the least.

The trio were silent after that. They kept trying to find Fred, George and Ginny but to no avail. But that's not to say they didn't run into nothing. They had found some young French students asking where there headmaster was. Hermione had spoken to them(in French) and they had run off in a different direction. They saw a veela, but only for a moment because Hermione changed their direction as soon as she saw the beautiful woman. Then they ran past Bagman who had disapparated soon after.

At some point Harry had realized he lost his wand. Ron and Hermione assured him that he had probably just left it in their tent but Harry wasn't so sure. Ever since Sirius had "attacked" Ron last year, he had slept with his wand on his person. Even though he knew the truth about Sirius now, the habit still stayed. So where was his wand… maybe he lost it while running through the woods… or maybe Malfoy took his wand when he was running away from him. It wouldn't surprise him.

Harry had bigger things to worry about. Why? Because the Dark Mark had just appeared in the sky and the three of them were currently under attack from a barrage of stunners. But before they could be hit, Harry's seeker reflexes kicked in and he was able to bring Ron and Hermione down to the ground before they were hit.

Apparently the adults assumed they were the ones who conjured the mark. Luckily Mr. Weasley was there to bring them back to reality.

"You really think _Harry Potter_ had anything to do with conjuring the Dark Mark?" A few of the adults had the decency to looked embarrassed.

But that didn't matter to some of them(Crouch) , they demanded to know what had happened here.

They explained that they heard a voice saying the incantation for the Dark Mark from a bush a few yards away. A few of the adults to check out what they were talking about. They discovered a house elf. Mr. Crouch's house elf, Winky. Who also had Harry's wand.

The trio try to explain that they heard a man's voice, but no one listened to them. Mr. Crouch had given Winky clothes as a punishment for summoning the Dark Mark, then left immediately after.

Hermione was livid at Mr. Crouch's treatment of his house elf. But Harry assumed that she knew this wasn't the time nor place to be talking about it.

Mr. Weasley then brought the trio back to their tent, Harry saw that Percy was currently trying to heal a large cut on Bill's arm, while Charlie was heading for his father, trying to get more information about what was happening.

"Dad- what's going on- the Dark Mark!" They didn't get to hear anything else because they started walking away. The trio was about to follow but he was stopped by Fred and George blocking their path.

"Where the hell did you go?" George said angrily. Okay seriously, why was it that every single Weasley turned into the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen when they went in protective mode?

"I fell, Harry and Hermione stayed behind to help me. We tried to find you guys again but couldn't." Ron said.

"...Well don't let it happen again." Fred said , realizing they couldn't be mad at them for getting lost. The twins walked over to the other side of the tent, clearly trying to calm down.

"I've never seen them act so… protective before." Ron said.

"It was worse earlier." Ginny said, scaring the trio slightly. They hadn't realized she was right next to them. "Back in the woods, when we saw you weren't with us, they freaked out. Fred had started leading the way to look for you while George was teaching me a few spells that I could use if we ran into trouble."

"What kind of spells?"

"Defensive spells mostly...One's way too advanced for me…I wouldn't have been able to do anything if anything had happened…" Ginny said kind of put out. "Luckily Charlie had found us, he was put out that you three weren't with us… he just brought us back here and was about to go find you when dad had come in with you guys."

"So you guys weren't hurt?" Hermione asked.

"No, we never ran into trouble. But we did freak out when we saw- saw the Dark Mark. Did you guys see it?"

The three shared a glance. Should they tell her what happened to them? They decided not to. While she put on a brave face, she was clearly afraid of the Dark Mark - well what it stood for anyway.

At some point in the night(or was it morning?) The trio, Ginny, Fred and George started to play Exploding Snap ( They couldn't sleep) While Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Mr. Weasley were doing whatever they could to help the Ministry around the camp.

The six of them were told by Bill around five in the morning that they should head to bed. Bill wasn't sure how long they would being staying there. They complied, they weren't happy about it but they complied. Ginny and Hermione had just taken two beds from the boys' tent. Not wanting to leave. Although Harry had a feeling Bill would have regretted his decision if he knew what would happen after he left.

Almost five minutes after Bill left, Mr. Weasley and another man came in.

"This is bad Arthur." He said in a whisper, not wanting to "wake up" the six "sleeping" teenagers. "Really, really bad! The Ministry is going to be busy for weeks-"

"Is that all you have to say!" Mr. Weasley angrily whispered at the man. "People have died tonight, and all you can say is how busy you're going to be."

"Look, I know that tonight has been a nightmare, okay! … And what are you talking about? I haven't heard about anyone dying."

"Figures they're trying to cover it up."

"What are you talking about?"

"... The family that the Death Eaters were torturing tonight, they killed them. All of them. Burned them alive." Harry had never heard him sound so defeated before.

"What?" the man said in horror." D-Did you see it?"

" I was there when it happened. I was busy defending myself from two of them at the time… But I saw the spell be cast- and then then screams…" Harry took a chance and glanced at Mr. Weasley, he was silently crying. " The children were five and seven, and the wife was pregnant." Harry felt like he was going to throw up.

"...Dear Merlin."

"I was just about to catch one of the bastards too, but then the Dark Mark showed up and they all fled."

"Did they catch anyone?"

"No, they all got away… again" The amount of bitterness in his voice was alarming.

Then someone else entered the tent. "Dad." It was Percy. " The Ministry is calling for everyone to clear out and go home. They're going to bring the Unspeakables and a few senior aurors in about an hour. We have that long to pack up and leave."

"What? But I was just called in to scout the-"

"Doesn't matter. Those who were recently called in are expected to head back to the Ministry, while those who've stayed the whole night get ten hours before they need to head back into work." Percy said.

"How bad is it?"

"You don't want to know, Gordon. But I could use your help. I was asked to spread the word about what's going on around the campsite."

"Yeah, I can help you with that. Anything to stay away from the Ministry at the moment."

The pair of them left in a rush out of the tent leaving Mr. Weasley to "wake" them up. Harry faked it the best he could, thankfully Mr. Weasley didn't seem to notice. He told them to get their shoes and jackets and to wait outside the tent for him, while he took care of a few more things.

When he left, the six of them all shared a look. A look of horror and disgust at what had happened to the muggle family the night before.

"Sh-Should we tell your dad we overheard him?" Hermione asked.

"...No, he's got enough to worry about at the moment." George answered soberly.

Harry couldn't help but agree. And he wasn't alone because everyone else was unconsciously nodding.

"...They set t-two children on fire…" Ginny said horrified, letting tears fall from her eyes. Fred and George went to comfort her.

Meanwhile Harry Ron and Hermione all looked at each other. Suddenly they knew exactly what war they were training themselves for.

* * *

 **Okay a few things.**

 **Some of you may not like that I, essentially, made Bill force Ginny into spying on the trio. And that's totally fine.** **But please understand, this fic is not about the good guys making all the right choices while the bad guys are constantly fumble. So within my story, the characters are going to mess up, make wrong choices, and do things that may be questionable. They are going to be as human as I can possibly make them. What I'm trying to say is that you're allowed to disagree with the character's choices, I encourage that in fact. But that doesn't mean that a character will always act that way.(Hint Hint)**

 **Now onto the whole Bill forcing Ginny thing, personally if I was in Bill's show this is what I would do. Does that make it right, no. But it is what I would do. If I had younger siblings put in danger all the time, I would want someone watching them for me.**

 **And finally, question. Do you guys want me to explain what happened in canon? For example, when the trio is running through the woods, I basically summarized what happened, and only added details if I changed something. Do you guys like that style, or do you want me to fully explain what the canon series gave us. And I'm not just talking about plot points, but also descriptions of characters we'll meet later. (EX. Moody, Fleur, Krum, etc.) Or are you guys totally caught up with canon and just want to read the new stuff? Please let me know.**

 **P.S How'd I do with Ginny... she's kind of hard to write at this age because J.K. didn't really use her that much until the fifth/sixth book. So I'm some what basing her off some thirteen years I've known in my life.**

 **Until next time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Me:Guess who still doesn't own the rights to Harry Potter! Me. *starts sobbing* Anyway on with the story-**

 **Mushu:You think you can get away with not posting for 87 years and not addressing it!**

 **Me: I'm sorry! School has been keeping me busy and I've had writer-**

 **Mushu: Dishonor on YOU! Dishonor on your cow!**

 **Me: But-**

 **Mushu: No excuses! Let the nice readers get on with the story while you and I have a discussion.**

 **Me:... Why me?**

* * *

 **First Day of School**

The last few days at the Burrow were hectic to say the least. The Ministry was in disarray, so Percy and Mr. Weasley were spending day and night there to try and fix the mess the the World Cup caused. The mess also somehow managed to affect both Charlie and Bill's jobs too. Charlie was immediately called back to Romania, something about whether or not it would be safe for the dragons to travel to Britain… Harry didn't understand why that was going to be a big deal, but Charlie had left about an hour later, promising to keep in touch.

Bill was also called in too. Even though he worked for the Egypt division of Gringotts, he was still asked to come back to work because of the mayhem that happened.

The the entire wizarding world was in chaos… at least that was what the newspapers were saying.

 _The international wizarding community was currently blaming the British for its lack of security during the World Cup._

 _That many European countries were demanding answers because they were told that You-Know-Who's followers were all either in prison or dead._

 _Viktor Krum was suing the entire British government for a conspiracy that they tampered with the game forcing his team to lose._

More and more stories were just constantly coming out it was hard to keep track of what was true and what was rubbish.

Meanwhile he, Ron and Hermione were playing catch up. After the events at the World Cup… well… they…

They were scared... partitioned... determined. An odd combination of the three. When they agreed that the would train to protect themselves from the Dark Lord… they imaged that they would just be fighting Him, and maybe a few other followers… It never crossed their minds that they would have to defend themselves from an army.

The three of them knew that Voldemort had followers- hundreds of followers. But they assumed most were dead or in Azkaban. The very idea that there were over thirty of them at the Cup… perfectly fine with people seeing them torturing muggles…

And what if they weren't the only ones still out there. What if there were more still silently supporting Voldemort from the shadows.

Well let's just say it freaked the three of them out enough to start working again. Not that anyone noticed what they were doing. With half of the Weasleys out of the house, it was easy. The three of them spent most of their time in Ron's room reading through Harry's advanced books, trying to make sense of it all. As well as researching their already assigned topics. They never spoke out loud of what they were doing, too nervous that they would be caught.

For the most part, nobody bothered them. Fred and George went back to inventing new pranks( and writing letters to someone), Ginny went over to her friends house (Luna, he thought) almost daily. And Mrs. Weasley mostly was trying to make sense of the news and doing her best to take care of the house as well as Percy and Mr. Weasley. ( The pair looked like they weren't getting much sleep).

Finally, September 1st had come, and Mrs. Weasley had managed to get all six of them(Fred, George, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny) to the Hogwarts express. Mr. Weasley was also suppose to come but someone had called him for help. Someone by the name of Mad-Eye was causing a disturbance and that Mr. Weasley was needed.

But in the meantime everyone was saying goodbye to Mrs. Weasley and hopping aboard the train.

The six of them went to their own compartments, the twins with Lee, Ginny with a blonde girl who had a dreamy look in her eye, and the trio managed to snag a small compartment in the back.

Hermione warded the door with as many silencing charms, privacy wards and Notice-me-not charms as she could. While it wasn't unheard of to put wards on the compartment doors, it was still uncommon. But Ron suggested that if anyone found out/ asked them on it, they would simply say that they didn't want Malfoy to show up and harass them. It seemed plausible enough considering he had done it every single train ride since first year.

But that didn't matter right now, what mattered was that with Hermione's wards were up and there was absolutely no one here to over hear them.

"Okay, So we should just to a brief summary of what we found out over the summer" Harry asked, wanting to make the most out the rare opportunity.

Hermione went first. She managed to outdo herself. Which surprised neither boy. She managed to create nine notes books worth of using everyday spells in a battle situation. A complete synopsis of her third year Runes class all put in one notebook. A potions cheatsheet of what all properties potion ingredients contained. (Harry would be looking through that in depth. Snape was not going to humiliate him. Not this year.) She also managed to make several O.W.L level medical potions. She said that she wanted some of the seventh years to look over her work- to make sure she did it right. But Harry wasn't worried, Hermione managed to create the N.E.W.T. level Polyjuice Potion in her second year. No doubt all of the Potions were perfect.

Hermione also mentioned that she looked into using magical plants as either a defensive or offensive battle strategies, but ultimately decided that that carrying around plants was largely impractical.

As much as Harry wanted to read through her research, he knew he was on a tight schedule. He asked Ron if he wanted to go next. He complied. Ron had filled out three different notebooks. The first was filled with all types of magical creatures. With explanations on how dangerous they were, what their weaknesses were, and where to find them. Next was his research on Curse Breaking. He managed to condense several books worth of material in the notebook. Ron apparently didn't think they would ever have the need to use any of that information, but after the whole diary incident well… better safe than sorry.

Finally, he started to explain his main research topic: The Rise and Fall of Voldemort. Apparently, the Weasleys had dozens of books about the war. Which surprised both Harry and Hermione. It turns out that Ron's uncles, Mrs. Weasley's brothers were killed during the last War. So others gave them the books as gifts as a testament of the bravery that they showed fighting the War. Ron mentioned that his mother had never read them, Harry couldn't blame her. The last thing he would want was another reminder that his family wasn't coming back.

Anyway that lead to Ron read a variety of different books on the events on War. From several different perspectives. Ron had found several of Voldemort's key strategies during the War. One of which was being able to figure out exactly who was a Death Eater.

"You see," Ron started. "I wanted to see if there was a reason to why certain muggle villages were attacked instead of the reasoning that it was all random. So I found the list of every convicted Death Eater and found that most of them joined You-Know-Who after they graduated Hogwarts. So if you manage to figure out the year they graduated you can pinpoint exactly where they would strike." Ron flipped through his notebook quickly trying to find the page he was looking for. "I think their first attack was some sort of initiation. Take the graduating class of 1972. Evan Rosier, Thorfinn Rowle,Warwick Travers, and Luther Scabior. All of them were convicted and put into Azkaban. However the summer they graduated only six muggle towns were attacked, four of which were right next to their ancestral homes."

"What about the other two attacks?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I can't be certain. Since they were never convicted." Ron said in a sarcastic voice. "But the other two attacks happened right next to both Nott and Malfoy manor."

Harry and Hermione already knew that Malfoy was a Death Eater, so Ron's theory immediately sounded reliable. Hermione started looking through the notebook with Harry trying to keep up with her. If Harry hadn't believed his theory before, he did now. Ron had managed to pinpoint every summer attack for over a decade to an individual. Names written in black were convicted Death Eaters, Green were suspected Death Eaters, and Blue seemed to just be a guess. Harry was impressed.

"This is very impressive Ron," Hermione said. "But I don't understand how we're finding out about this now- I mean it's been over a decade since the war ended…" Hermione said trying to grasp the situation. "I mean- Surely someone should have found this connection before-"

"Not necessarily." Harry said.

"...Explain."

"Remember the librarian I befriended-"

"Theodore White?"

"Yes, anyway he was a soldier during World War Two. He told me that after the war ended, nobody really cared about what happened during his time in the war. All they cared about was if he did anything heroic. Nobody liked it when he would tell him the horror stories of what actually happened during the war. No one wanted to know. They just wanted to forget.

It took years before people would even talk about the war, even longer to talk about the tragedies that occurred… it's only been a decade since Voldemort (Hermione and Ron flinched) "died" and people are still afraid of his name." He said looking at them both. "It wouldn't surprise me if no one even bothered to look back at the happenings of the War. Well at least not until now."

"...Look I'm not going to claim like I was the first person to come up with this theory…" Ron started. "But I read over thirty books on the topic, and not once did anyone write about how there could possibly be a reason to the attacks to the muggle towns. Which I found odd because most of them were Slytherin, and they're known for their cunning and strategies … so it just seemed off to me that all of their attacks were completely random…"

"Hopefully we'll find out more information like that together at Hogwarts." Harry added.

Soon after Ron went to explain a few other theories that he had regarding the attack patterns of the Death Eaters, magical allies that the Dark obtained, and estimates on which Death Eaters were still out there.

Then it was Harry's turn to speak. He quickly went through several key moments of the strategies used during the first and second (muggle) world wars, as well as a few physiological aspects he had learned. (Malfoy won't stand a chance now.) And he brought out a few ASL and Morse code books as a possibility for silent communication. But finally he brought up something that he knew would vital if they wanted to survive the possible next wizarding war.

"... So you think," Ron said confused. " That the only way we'll win is if… we make more... friends?"

"Yes." Harry said.

"Look," Hermione said, " I don't mind if we made new friends, but it… feels wrong to make them simply for an advantage in the war- if they could even be an advantage-"

"Have either of you two heard of Rosa Parks?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Yes. She was an activist in the civil rights movement of America and is best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott." Hermione answered without skipping a beat.

"... Yeah, no idea what you two are talking about." Ron admitted. And after a quick history lesson from Hermione, Harry went on to explain why he brought up the topic in the first place.

"But did you two ever wonder WHY she was the one who started the movement?" Harry didn't wait for them to answer.

"It wasn't because she was the first to do so, others had stood up for what was right long before she did. It was because she was a community figure, both black and white people with in their community ,who had known and respected her, they all wanted to help. Everyone was brought in by a common goal of helping Parks. What I'm trying to say is that the only reason the Montgomery Bus Boycott was so successful was because most people in the area were her friends, or at least friends of friends, of Parks. And they wanted to do right by her."

Harry let Ron and Hermione think over what he had said.

"You're idea has merit, Harry," Hermione said slowly. " But I don't know how comfortable I am with the idea of making friends with the sole reason of using-"

"That's not what I'm asking." Harry said. "I'm just saying that we should try and… branch out and meet new people."

"But why though…?" Ron asked.

"Look, remember back in second year, when everyone thought I was the Heir of Slytherin?"

"Back when everyone was being a stupid git, yeah we remember." Ron answered.

"But were they at fault though?" Harry asked. " They don't know anything about me other than I'm the Boy-Who-Lived, I'm in Gryffindor, I'm the Gryffindor Seeker, and that you two are my friends. Anything else they know are just rumors."

"...But if we were to start hanging around other people," Hermione started. " Then, maybe, if something negative were to happen to you or us for that matter, then maybe the school wouldn't ostracize us again." Harry winced. He had completely forgotten that while everyone avoided him, a lot of students would also avoid them too.

"Also there would be a benefit that if one of us disappears to train or research something, the other two could say that they were with their other friends. I doubt anyone would question it. At least not after awhile." Ron added.

"So we're in agreement, we try making new friends this year?" Harry asked.

Ron and Hermione shared a look. "We can try, but no promises."

"Brilliant."

"But how are we going to go about it though?" Hermione asked. " It would be a little suspicious if the three of all decided to meet new people all of the sudden."

Harry had to agree, while not everyone would find it out of character, their year- mates, Fred, George and Ginny all would. So right now they needed a plausible excuse to hang around other people.

"... We could just say someone mentioned that it's unnatural for the three of us to be so close. And that after some time we agreed with them and wanted to branch out…?" Ron suggested.

"That'll work." Harry said and meant.

" So how are we doing this?" Hermione questioned. "Are we all going to make allies together or do we do it separately. If we are doing it separately, who do we go to? Do we go by years or by Houses-"

"Dibs on not Slytherin!" Ron interjected.

Hermione gave him a look. Harry decided to speak up before they got into an argument. " I think we should try to meet new people with similar interests."

"You think we should join a club or something?" Ron inquired.

"Along those lines."

"Hmm." Hermione hummed. " I suppose I could join the Tutors Club."

"There's a Tutors Club?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes Harry," Hermione said exasperated. " The professors have a lot of work to do, so they don't always have the time to help each student, so they assign them a tutor."

"Why would you ever need a tutor?" Ron asked. "You're Hermione Granger, The Brightest Witch of Her Age."

Hermione tried and failed to hide the slight blush that appeared on her face but answered regardless " I asked Professor McGonagall if anyone would be willing to teach me about Wizarding Customs, Culture, and History. She assigned me to a nice Seventh Year Hufflepuff. She actually asked me to be a tutor last year… but with all the extra classes I was taking I couldn't manage it. But now that I have a normal schedule I could handle it."

"And if you do tutor," Harry joked, "You can convince the younger years that I'm not some God-Like creature."

"Merlin forbid we have another Colin on our hands." Ron added grinning. " But on a more serious note, Tutors Club is a good idea, not only would you have access to the younger years, but also several other older tutors. Not to mention how no one would be suspicious of your decision. .

"Okay, so we know what I'm doing, what about you two?

"I- never mind" Ron said quickly.

"What?" Harry asked curiously.

" Well… there is this- weekly chess thing where some students l challenge each other kind of like a tournament…"

"That sounds like something you would enjoy, Ron."Hermione said. " Why haven't you joined already?"

"Two reasons really, first being the fact that the meetings are held Sunday evenings-so I was too busy with trying to finish my homework to go to meetings." Hermione rolled her eyes. " The second being that it's most filled with Ravenclaws and Slytherins- and you both know how I feel about Slytherins." Harry subconsciously nodded in agreement. Between Malfoy and Snape, they had no reason to like them. However Hermione disagreed.

"Oh honestly, not all Slytherins are bad." She said exasperated. "Are Malfoy and his goons bad, yes. But the others are… decent enough."

"Decent enough?" Harry repeated.

"Well… it's not as if I've had a full conversation with them, but I've had some small talk with Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass in Ancient Runes… At the very least they don't view me as some dirty little mudblood-"

"Don't say that word, 'Mione!" Ron shouted at her.

Hermione just shrugged her shoulders, but had a distance look in her eyes like she was thinking about something. Then suddenly Hermione gave her 'I have an idea' look. Harry didn't ask and decided to get back on topic.

"But anyway Ron, I won't force you to do anything, if you don't want to join the chess-"

"No, I'll do it." Ron said, even though it looked like he wished he hadn't. " Out of all the other clubs in the school, this one would make the most sense of me joining."

And that was when Harry had to take a pause and reflect at what Ron had said. Why? Because it was just then he had realized how most of Ron's replies for the day had been more about strategies than anything else. Which had me him wonder, if studying about the War had changed his way of thinking, or if he had always had these kinds of thought but just never shared them. Or has Ron always talked like this, it's just Harry hadn't noticed before?Harry didn't have time dwell on his thoughts however because-

"So what about you Harry?"Ron asked.

"Yes, are you going to join some kind of club too or do you think that between Quidditch, our other studies and actual school work you wouldn't have the time for another club?" Hermione inquired.

" I don't think I'll have time to join an actual club but… I was thinking about maybe asking Lavender and Parvati about teaching me about pure-blood customs and etiquette."

"It was nice knowing you mate." Ron said gravely. Hermione hit him. ("Ow!")

"Those two aren't that bad." Hermione said, defending her dorm mates. " But I do have to wonder how you think learning about pure-blood customs is going to help us. And why you would choose Lavender and Partavi of all people. Don't get me wrong, I like them and everything, but out of everybody at Hogwarts, why them? "

"Three reasons. First, it would show that I'm open to hanging around other in our year. Second, they know their stuff. And lastly, they're known gossips which means-"

"That most of all of the other pure-bloods will know that the House of Potter is going to be future player by the end of the week." Ron finished. "Brilliant."

"Is it?" Hermione said confused. "While I'm aware that a lot of pure-bloods have power within the Ministry because of their last name, would their children really care about all this?"

"Oh yeah." Ron said. " Most pure-bloods are taught their responsibilities to the family since birth. Almost every pure-blood kid and hell even most half bloods are going to be really interested when they find out. "

"Does that mean you were taught too?" Hermione asked. "Because I didn't get the vibe that your parents cared about all the politics of pure-bloods."

"Mom and Dad weren't, but Mom's side of the family is a whole other story. Bill, Charlie, and Percy were all taught about everything they need to know in order to be Head of the family."

"Wait does that mean you know about this stuff?" Harry questioned.

"Sorry mate, I barely know the basics. Otherwise I would have offered to help you."

"Why is it that you don't know when your older brothers do?" Hermione asked.

"You can thank Fred and George for that. They managed to piss off the rest of the family so much that they didn't want to teach them, me or Ginny. Which I was really thankful for- Charlie made it seem like it was torture disguised as teaching-"

"But doesn't it bothered you that your brothers got to learn something you didn't?" Hermione interrupted. Harry had to cover his snort as a cough. Figures Hermione would be outraged on Ron's behalf: She was always outraged when knowledge was being kept from her.

"Mmm. Not really," Ron admitted. "I mean it's not like it was needed for me to know. Bill and Charlie can take over the Prewett and Weasley names with Percy being a fail safe. Even if I forced to learn, it's not as if I would have ever gotten to use it."

Ron didn't sound sad about the statement but he didn't sound happy either. Harry wondered what that meant but decided not to push the subject for today. Instead he figured it was time to move on to something else.

"Okay so is there anything else either one of you want to discuss about what'll we'll be doing at Hogwarts."

"Learning healing magic needs to be our first priority." Hermione said."Not only is it a useful skill, but also would allow us to try more advanced magic without the need of going to Madam Pomfrey -"

" So Bill and Charlie don't know what we're getting up to while we're at school." Ron finished. "You should be the one to get the healing books though. No one would blink twice at you getting your hands on them." Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Anything else?" Ron and Hermione shook their heads. "Okay, cool, I guess we're done then." Even before his words had left his mouth Ron had already picked up the Runes notebook and began to devour the information. Hermione and Harry shared a smile. They never thought they would see the day where Ron was excited to learn something.

Hermione asked Harry to give her the Morse code book. Probably determined to fully understand how it worked before getting to school.

Meanwhile Harry started looking through his expandable bag-looking for a certain defense book. The one that had the theory on how to perform wandless magic. After running around a forest with no wand and Death Eaters… he really wanted to pick up skill. He actually found the theory behind the skill easy enough to understand. It was just the sheer power and astronomical focus one needed to perform a spell wandless. But Harry wasn't deterred. After all he managed to perform a wandless spell on his Aunt Marge just last summer. He was determined to master the skill. If only he could find the book! That's when Harry grabbed on to the Defense book.

Well, what he thought was the defense book anyway. It was actually something else. It was the Potter Family … instruction book ? Harry didn't know what to call it. He only knew two things about the book:

First, that it had information on every single Potter, including those who married in, as well as a strict set of family rules, and family connections. The book was brimming with information. But Harry didn't want to read about it, at least not now. Not only was he still reading his mother's diaries and the marauders' manuel (currently he was in the middle of their fifth year.) But there was another reason he wouldn't truly read it.

Secondly, Harry didn't see that book in his family vault. And he figured he would have at least glanced at book that had "Potter" written in cursive silver.

So that only left one option. Griphook, his account manager, had put not only a book about dark magic in his bag (a book that his mother had _allegedly_ read) but also a Potter's handbook… It was frustrating and confusing. Why would Griphook do something like that? What was in it for him?

Harry had thought about telling Ron and Hermione but didn't want to worry them… Besides he was probably reading too much into it anyway…

Harry finally found the book he was looking for and pulled it out. Harry made himself comfortable as he started reading.

 _Wandless magic is often considered advanced magic by every country all over the world._

 _Which is odd considering children under eleven are able to manage doing so without much trouble. So if my theory is true then my three step process should produce the results of…_

* * *

When the train had arrived at the station it wasn't exactly the best welcoming she had ever remembered. For one, it was pouring down rain, and for second, Peeves was throwing water balloons at students. Daphne Greengrass was just lucky enough to not been seen by the annoying poltergeist.

She managed to spell herself dry and get a seat for her and her friend, Tracey Davis, who was currently talking to her older brother at the Ravenclaw table. At some point Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott had joined her. And thankfully other year students had surrendered them. That meant Malfoy and his goons wouldn't have to be near her for tonight.

And with that good news she decided to do what she did best: Quietly observe. For you see that is what she did best.

If most people were to talk about her they would say "Oh her… I think she was in one of my classes." It was part of her and her father's plan really. Her father and she knew she would end up in Slytherin, but seeing as the Slytherin House was currently considered a House of nothing but bigots and killers, they both knew she needed to get her head down.

That way when she was an adult, she could easily brush off the Slytherin label and people would be more willing to trust her. After all no reputation was better then one that would come back to haunt you.

She looked down the Slytherin table to look for her sister, Astoria. Daphne had a soft spot for her, well as a protective streak. Anyone one who messed with her sister would meet a terrible fate, not that anyone could ever prove it was her.

Astoria was currently talking to her friends Hestia and Flora Carrow. At first Daphne wasn't so sure about the twins befriending her sister, but thankfully those two were nothing like Alecto and Amycus. So Daphne had let Astoria keep them as friends, she was just never allowed to visit their manor. Not that it mattered, since Hestia and Flora spent most of their summer holidays at Greengrass manor anyway. Not that Daphne could blame the younger girls. She certainly wouldn't want to be left alone in the same manor with the older Carrows either.

Moving past the Slytherin table she noticed that only Professor Vector and Professor Burbage were in attendance. Daphne figured that they were supposed to keep watch over the students while the other professors took care of Peeves and the drenched students. Not like the two professors would do anything if something DID come up. Both were shamelessly gossiping with each other, not even paying attention to what was happening around them.

She quickly glanced through all of the other tables, she stopped when she got to Tracey talking with her older brother. She couldn't tell what they were talking about but it seemed to be a pleasant talk. However her attention had shifted to the entrance of the Great Hall, and what she saw almost made her gasp, but she had firmly kept her mask in place.

What exactly did she see. Well it was the Golden Trio of course, could it really be anything else. Now why did she almost gasp? What a good question. It was two reasons really.

First when the trio walked into the hall, they weren't alone. They had managed to walk in the rest of their Gryffindor year mates. Potter was currently talking to Brown, Patil, and Longbottom, while Potter would converse with his year mates, he almost never did if Weasley and Granger were there with him. And as for Weasley and Granger they were also branching out. Weasley was conversing with Finnigan, which wasn't TOO odd, but what WAS odd was Granger and Thomas whispering with each other. And while both were the only muggleborns their year in Gryffindor, they couldn't be more different. Granger was a strict, no nonsense hard worker ,while Thomas was a go with the flow kind of person.

What the hell could they both be talking about?

But that wasn't the only thing. Potter, Weasley,and Granger had this sort of aura of confidence around them. An aura she was pretty sure only she could see considering no one else was looking at them.

However any other thought that came to her vanished when she saw Malfoy waltzing up to the Gryffindor table with Crabbe and Goyle flanking both of his sides , while Parkinson and her tag along, Bulstrode , stood off to the side like they were muggle cheerleaders.

Daphne quickly glanced up to the only Professors in the room, they didn't notice anything. She mentally rolled her eyes and looked back to Malfoy heading to the Gryffindor table. Most of the Great Hall had started to look unabashedly to the scene that was about to unfold before them.

"So Potter, " Malfoy said loud enough for the entire Hall to hear. "Is it true that you, Weasel, and your pet mudblood used spells to lock your compartment door so no one else could bother you? Were the acts your were doing in your compartment truly so horrific that you couldn't risk any poor soul interrupting your lewd acts. Because if that's the case you and your whores could have at least had the decency to restrain yourselves until you got off the train."

Daphne physically rolled her eyes this time. Seriously? That was it? While a comment like that aimed towards a Slytherin (or any other strict traditionalist) would have been damaging, it would do almost nothing to a Gryffindor. Especially those three Gryffindors. They would simply tell off Malfoy for calling Granger a mudblood and Malfoy would walk away without any repercussions... like always.

However the explosion that she, and probably the rest off the school, never happened. It was odd, the trio was always ready to defend the other. And yet, there was no jump for defense. Not even when Malfoy called Granger a mudblood. A fact that was clearly confusing their roommates too. It looked as if they were wondering if they should jump to her defense if Potter and Weasley wouldn't.

"What? Nothing to say." Malfoy said arrogantly.

Potter simply stood up slowly and glanced quickly to the head table. Before looking Malfoy in the eye almost… apologetically?

"I'm so sorry… I should have known. I- don't worry I will correct my mistake. Malfoy - how would you like to join the three of us next time?"

The whole Hall was silent. Even Professors Vector and Burbage were watching.

The silence was interrupted by Malfoy's high pitched "What?!"

"Harry," Granger lightly scolded. "He isn't ready for polygamous relationship. These things need to start off slowly. But I do think he's ready for a sexual relationship with just you-"

"I WOULDN'T TOUCH ANY OF YOU PIECES OF FILTH! LET ALONE POTTER-"

"Oh come off it," Weasley said condescendingly . "You've been obsessed with Harry since first year, so why do you just do us all of favor and just shag him already. But if you think you can handle it, you can feel free to join the three of us tomorrow evening by the lake-"

Malfoy was red in the face, whether it was from rage or humiliation, Daphne wasn't sure. It was quite the interesting scene. But all good things must come to an end, because that's when the trio had starting laughing at Malfoy's almost purple face. Followed swiftly by the rest of the Gryffindor table. Followed soon after by the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw table.

The Slytherin table knew better than to openly laugh at the Malfoy and Black heir. But that didn't mean they weren't relishing Malfoy's humiliation.

Malfoy had screamed something towards Potter, but Daphne couldn't hear what he said over all of the laughter. Malfoy had then swiftly walked over to the Slytherin table followed by Parkinson trying to lick Malfoy's wounds for him. Followed ungracefully by Crabbe, Goyle, and Burstode. That was when Tracey had showed up to sit next to Daphne.

"Please tell me that really happened! Please tell me that wasn't some kind of hallucination." Tracey pleaded to their group of four, completely comfortable that they wouldn't be overheard because of the rambunctious laughter still going.

"Damn straight it did." Zabini said. "About time something happened to the idiot. Honestly, he should have known better to not start something without Snape close by to hold his hand."To cover their smiles Tracey and Zabini took sips from their water goblets.

Meanwhile Daphne and Nott didn't say anything. Though the likelihood of someone over hearing them was slim, the two of them couldn't risk being overheard saying anything negative about Malfoy. If word go back to Malfoy or their parents it would be bad. It would go against the al-

"Who knew that those three had it in them?" Zabini said like a proud parent.

"I'm more surprised Potter took the risk to engage." Nott said neutrally. "Usually he would have kept quiet in a large setting like this. After all if Snape was here he would have seriously gotten himself in a world of trouble."

"Maybe he didn't think he was here?" Tracey added.

"Unlikely-" Nott said before being interrupted by Daphne.

"Highly likely actually, considering he looked to the Staff table before even speaking to Malfoy."

With the noise level going back to normal, the four Slytherins went to discussing more neutral topics, such as upcoming classes to pass the time.

Eventually all of the professors had come to the Great Hall and the sorting ceremony had begun. It was the longest on she had ever been to. There were around one hundred new students, which was bounds larger then her class, which composed of only 35 students. It was to be expected though. The war was in full force back then and had affected the birth rate amongst British wizards. The opening feast came and went and Daphne was ready to call it a day. However Dumbledore had a few announcements, there were the normal ones, like no prank products and don't go to the Forbidden Forest. But what threw most people for a loop was the cancellation of Quidditch that year. Students from every House was outraged. And while Daphne was that big of a Quidditch fan, she didn't understand how the Triwizard Tournament meant that there would be no time for Quidditch matches. Oh well, not her problem.

Luckily Dumbledore had quieted everyone with news of the Triwizard Tournament. Obviously it didn't surprise her or really most children with parents within the Ministry. But what did surprise her was the news that only those of age could enter the competition. Which certainly did make several students upset. Tracey nudged her to look over to Malfoy. He seemed truly offended that he wouldn't be able to compete.

"Did he really think the Goblet would choose him?" Tracey whispered in her ear. "He can't last five seconds in Care of Magical Creatures without getting hurt, what makes him think he would be chosen, let alone survive?"

"The Black madness truly doesn't miss any of them." Daphne whispered back. Tracey laughed silently at her remark.

Eventually Dumbledore released them to everyone to their dormitories. Daphne was thankful she just wanted to go to bed so she would be well-rested for classes tomorrow.

However Nott had a different idea. He asked if she and Tracey would come into his and Zabini's dorm before going to bed. (One of the perks of being sorted into Slytherin was that the dorms were only meant for two people and they get to choose who they dorm with.)

"So what is so important that we needed to talk before tomorrow ?" Tracey asked annoyed that they were being kept from sleep longer than necessary.

"Were either of you two paying _close_ attention to Dumbledore when he announced that only those of age." Nott asked while Zabini was putting up privacy wards.

"No, we were too busy looking around at the other students. Why?" Tracey asked.

Nott looked over to Zabini, checking to make sure he was done. When he saw the he was he answered. "Because as he did, Dumbledore's gaze locked immediately towards Gryffindor table."

"He was looking at Potter." Daphne surmised.

"That was the theory." Zabini admitted.

"But why, even if the rumors of Potter's adventures actually _are_ true, that doesn't mean the Goblet would choose him." Tracey said

"Nor is it likely that he would enter the competition. Potter isn't the type of person to enter in that kind of competition." Daphne added.

"You make it sound like he's the one who needs to enter his name." Zabini added.

"What? You think someone will forcefully-"

"Yes." Nott said. "Even now with the age restriction I believe that somehow, someway he'll be entered. "

"How can you be so sure?" Daphne inquired.

" Because drawing the names for the tournament is happening on October 31st. It's happening on Samhain-"

"Your point, Nott."

"Look," Zabini said taking over for Nott. " Every Samhain something happens to Potter. First year, attacked by a troll. Second year, the Chamber of Secrets had reopened and he was the one caught at the scene of the crime. And last year Sirius Black managed to break into Hogwarts to attack him."

"There's also the fact that Lily and James Potter were also murdered on Samhain." Nott added.

Okay. So the two boys made a point.

"Why are we even talking about this?" Tracey asked. " Potter isn't our concern. So why are we-"

"Because the Dark Lord is coming back, Davis!" Zabini snapped causing the other three to flinch. "This matters because sooner or later the Dark Lord is coming back! And with Black escaping, the dark mark at the World Cup… if Potter's name comes out of that Goblet… it means he's coming back."

"You don't know that-"

"Yes I do! And for that matter so do the rest of you." Zabini looked straight to Daphne. "C'mon Greengrass, tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that your father's dark mark hasn't been coming back."

Daphne remained silent.

"What about you Nott, how about your father's mark?"

Again no reply.

"He's coming back. And if- no when He comes back we have to make a decision."

Zabini had a point. If the Dark Lord came back that meant they had a choice to make. The four of them had agreed early on in their friendship that they would like to stay as neutral as possible in their lives, however neutrality wasn't an option in the last war. You were either with the Dark Lord or His next kill. Neither option was appealing. However the four of them knew which choice they would like to take. But life isn't fair and their wants didn't matter. They knew that if the Dark Lord came back they would have to join the Dark. It would be the only way to ensure their family's safety.

"I hate this." Tracey said trying to keep herself from crying.

"Hey, whatever happens. We're in this together." Daphne said giving her friend a hug. "Besides nothing is certain yet, we still might have more time."

But she didn't really believe that. None of them did. There was nothing they could do. Their fates were sealed the moment the sorting hat called out Slytherin. It was hopeless.

* * *

Percy Weasley was exhausted, Crouch had been working him to the bone for the past 20 hours. And even worse was that Crouch had ordered him to be back at the Ministry at seven in the morning. He looked at the clock to see he only had seven more hours of peace before he was expected back at work.

When he started working at the Ministry this summer he had begged to work longer hours, to prove that he was eager to help the Ministry anyway he could. Now though, having worked those longer hours for almost the past week, he was at his breaking point. If the Ministry couldn't find any solutions to appease the other countries for the World Cup fiasco… Percy didn't even want to think about that.

Instead he continued drinking his tea spiked with calming draught, not that it was helping all that much, trying to calm down his mind from work so he could at least get some sleep before going to work. Nothing was working though.

He sighed in frustration, he was just about to make a sleeping draught from scratch when he heard a knock coming from the front door of the Burrow.

Percy looked at the door in confusion. Who makes a house call at midnight? Percy went to answer the door.

It was Bill and Charlie.

"Why are you two here? And why didn't you just apparate or floo here?" Percy asked.

"Wow, no 'Good to you' or 'Thanks for gracing me with your presence.'" Charlie said in mock outrage. Percy rolled his eyes and looked to Bill for answers.

"We're here for a house visit, and we chose to knock because we didn't want to startle you, mom, or dad with our sudden appearance.

"A house visit, really?" Percy asked skeptically. "You both managed to take time off at the exact same time, during the international debacle, and didn't even bother telling either of our parents that you were both coming over?"

"Told you he would buy it." Charlie said.

"Shut up Charlie." Bill grumbled.

"So why are you both actually here?"

Bill signed and plopped down in the chair across from him. "I'm going to come right out and say it. We need your help."

"Help with what?"

"Ron." Charlie answered." As well as Harry and Hermione."

Percy pinched his nose. "What did those three do now?"

"We aren't concerned about now, at the moment, we're more interested in their first three years at Hogwarts."

"...Why?"

"We want to compare notes."

"Compare notes- what are you to talking about?"

Bill and Charlie shared a look.

"We have recently discovered…" Bill said trying to find the right words. "Some of the dangers are youngest brother and his friends have faced over the years and we…"

"And we don't want them going through any more dangers." Charlie finished.

"And exactly how are you planning on doing that?"

"We have something already in motion, and a few other ideas." Bill said cryptically.

"And we agreed we would let you in on it if you decided to help us… fill in some missing gaps in the story." Charlie added.

"Fill you in on what?"

"Don't play dumb Percy, it doesn't suit you." Charlie said.

"Percy look," Bill said. "You were there with them for their first three years at school. Which means you already know more then the two of us. We not only need your help, but we need your knowledge on what happened. We won't force you to join us in what we're doing… but please tell us what you know about their time at school. We just want to protect those three, not mention Ginny…"

Percy didn't hear what Bill was saying after that. Why because he too busy thinking about Ginny. His baby sister. In her first year she had been possessed by You-Know-Who and nearly died. And Percy couldn't do anything to stop it. He didn't even know what had even happened until later when Ron had told him. Percy had blamed himself for what happened. He had given a promise to his parents that he would protect her, and he failed.

He also failed Ron too, in his first year he had been given a mild concussion from going after the Philosopher's Stone. When he had seen Ron in the hospital wing, looking so frail and helpless, it… it was the first time he realized that Ron, or any of his siblings for that matter, wouldn't live forever, that it was possible any of them could be hurt or die suddenly. It was quite the reality shock for the then fifteen year old prefect.

"... you agree hopefully we can kept them safe-"

"I'll do it." Percy interrupted. "While I don't see how we'll be able to help them while they're in Hogwarts, I'll do what I can."

He had to. He wanted to protect his younger siblings now as a way to make up for failing them before. Not to mention he wouldn't mind trying to protect Harry and Hermione. He owed both of them after all. Hermione had saved his girlfriend's life by warning her about the basilisk. And Harry had saved his sister's life. Yes he would try to protect those two just as well as his youngest siblings.

"So what do you need me to do?" Percy asked.

"Well we need you to fill in some details that we don't know about." Charlie said.

"Like what?"

"Well," Bill started, "Ginny mentioned that Sirius Black had managed to get into the third year boys dormitory, but didn't mention what really happened. So let's start there."

… Oh boy Percy was in for a long night.

* * *

 **Omg I'm so sorry that it's been so long since my last upload. Unfortunately the Muses decided to torture me by giving me thousands of ideas, just none that would work for this chapter. Hopefully that won't happen again. Anyway on to more pressing matters.**

 **First, I need to address something about this story. It's only part one.** **Which means ,for the most part, that a lot of this story is going to be set up. But I will do my best to keep it interesting. But that I also means I need your help. I need you guys to tell me if I'm writing the characters correctly and that the plot is interesting. I would be very grateful if you did.**

 **Second, how did you guys feel about Daphne's point of view? Is there anything I can improve upon? And yes, her point of view will be coming back. She is my opening for having more interaction between other** **Slytherins** **, Death Eaters, and just giving the reader a better understanding of how the school is perceiving the trio.**

 **Third, did I do a good job writing the trio on the train? Let me tell you it was incredibility difficult to do so and I have no idea why. But you're opinions would help me for next time.**

 **(Also,Percy will be joining his older brothers in their quest in trying to protect the trio. And no I don't think it would be out of character for him, and if it seems like it is, well hopefully his thought process makes you at least understand why he agreed.)**

 **Until next time.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I DON'T OWN THE RIGHTS TO HARRY POTTER (in case you didn't already know)**

 **First Weekend Back**

Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry was known for may things. Being a spectacular school, producing some of the best witches and wizards of all time… not to mention being a fantastic place for gossip.

Usually the first week of school meant that gossip was stale or not very exciting due to everyone trying to get back into the swing of things- but not this year. This year had three juicy stories that had everyone talking.

The first was about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor (Mad-Eye) Moody. He was… different to say the least.

After all, his first lesson was teaching and demonstrating the three Unforgivables in front of third to seventh years. (First and Seconds years were only shown the Imperious curse). And while several students were excited to have a professor that knew what they were talking about, some students thought that he was going to fast and too hard on what he was teaching. For example, Susan Bones was found crying in an empty bathroom after his first lesson. And Neville Longbottom was acting… off. Most people couldn't figure out why he was acting so off, considering he actually participated in the discussion, but the students who did know why he was acting like that told the others to drop the subject. Most did easily considering the other things they could talk about about. Like Harry Potter.

And no, the students weren't talking about how he reacted to the killing curse.(although some were) They were talking about how Harry was going to be cultured in Pureblood culture and etiquette. Now that in of itself wasn't a big deal, almost every Pureblood and Half Blood with a significant family name was taught that. No, the reason this was a big deal was because it meant that Potter name would be coming back within the next few years. It was big news to many who had heard. Many children had written their parents to warn/tell them about the news.

But that wasn't where the gossiped ended. No. They continued talking about him.

"Why is he learning now?"

"Why did he choose Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil to teach him?"

"Why would he even _need_ those two to teach him?"

That's when the gossip mill really went into full force. As it turns out, the rumor that Harry Potter lived as a pampered prince was a lie. Instead, the less popular rumor, that he lives with his muggle relatives was true. And it was confirmed by the Weasley children and Hermione Granger. (Nobody asked Harry, you never go to the source when discussing gossip.)

That was what sparked a completely new understanding of the Boy-Who-Lived. He wasn't like his father, not caring about his family name and future responsibilities. No. It was that he didn't know he HAD those types of responsibilities in the first place. So every social faux-pas he had ever committed (it wasn't that many) wasn't from arrogance, but rather ignorance.

And that ignorance wasn't going to last much longer, not if Brown and Patil had anything to say about.

But that wasn't the strangest thing students were talking about that week. No. The primary topic of discussion was Hermione Granger and Dean Thomas. Or at least what they had started anyway.

It all started the morning right before classes. Hermione was sitting with her friends when Dean Thomas sat down right next to Hermione, put his arm around her shoulder and said loudly "So how's my favorite mudblood today?"

You could hear a pin drop. No one could believe their ears. Even the teachers weren't sure what to do.

However it was when the Gryffindors started to silently start laughing that most of the students and teachers understood what was happening.

This was planned. And the Gryffindors were in on it. But it didn't end there. Not even close. Most just brushed off the encounter as some sort of prank, but they were wrong. By the end of the day muggleborns from Gryffindor, as well as, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, were all calling each other by the slur "mudblood". They were trying to take power away from the word; and it was actually kind of working. The word mudblood was actually losing meaning every time someone used.

And most muggleborns were using the word in almost every sentence they could.

Of course there were still the blood purists who tried to take the word back. It never worked out in their favor, mostly due to the fact that if anyone was called a "mudblood" they would respond positively. Probably the favorite response was from a second year Ravenclaw boy.

" _You- You really think have I the honor to be called a mudblood? No one's ever called me something so nice before…"_ That's when he started crying happy tears and gave his would-be bullies a hug. The blood purists stopped trying that approach to show their dominance after that.

But that didn't mean they gave up. Oh no. Instead they just resorted to more violent tactics. Cursing muggleborns seemed to be the new tactic in showing them their place. It didn't really work, considering that the muggleborns were all walking in packs, but there were some instances in which injuries occurred. (Hermione and Dean were the ones who had the most attacks on them. Mostly due to the fact that they were the two that started the movement.) But those who had casted those curses would find that their tongues were almost four feet long the next day.

So that discouraged the blood purists from trying to attacks the muggleborns… at least for now. All anyone could do was wait and see how things would turn out.

But for now, all the students were just happy that the weekend had finally come. And now all the students could relax and not have to worry about anything for the next two days...well almost everyone…

* * *

 **Saturday**

 **Transfiguration room**

 **1:09 P.M.**

Hermione Granger was currently sitting with her last tutoring student of the day. The student was a first year Ravenclaw muggleborn girl, who was currently showing signs of frustration. Now the girl was doing her best to not snap by the amount of frustration she was feeling but… eleven year olds only have so much patience…

"Okay, you are doing great so far." Hermione told the girl. "Turning the match silver is a big achievement. Now I want you to focus on how sharp your needle needs to be. Picture it in your mind, then let your magic embrace you and-"

"What is the point of this!?"

"Natalie-"

"No, I'm serious. What is the point of knowing how to change a match stick into a needle. Or how to turn a button into a beetle! How is that supposed to be helpful? And-"

Natalie never got to mention what else was bothering her because she noticed how Hermione was giggling at her distress.

"This isn't funny!"

"No,I'm not laughing at you," Hermione said trying to swallow her giggles. "I'm laughing because I said the same thing to my Head of House three years ago."

"... Really?"

"Yes," Hermione confirmed. Of course she was much more polite about it. "I hated the idea that I would be learning useless magic, but I would soon learn that Transfiguration is more than just changing an object to another object. Transfiguration is forcing your magic to change the environment around you by sheer force of will. I understand that right now Transfiguration is not very practical at the moment, but give it time and soon you'll see that it could very well be the most important subject you'll ever learn."

Hermione wanted to drive her message home so she took one of the practice buttons and changed it into a miniature owl using the spell Natalie knew and ordered it to pick up the needle at the end of the table and bring it to her.

Natalie's mouth was practically hitting the ground.

"What-but… how did you do that? That spell is supposed to turn a button into a beetle."

"No, the spell is supposed to change an object around the size of a button into a living creature.. Learning how to change it into a beetle is just learning the basics, really."

"Wow, when will I be able to do that?" Natalie said, smiling for the first time she was here.

"Not for a few more years." That made Natalie frown. "But it could be sooner if you put in the work…"

"What are we waiting for. You've got to teach me how to change this match into a needle! Then how to change a button into a beetle. Maybe if there's time, something else!" Natalie said with newfound determination. Hermione chuckled at how quickly the first year had changed her attitude, but obliged nonetheless.

"As I was saying earlier, focus on how sharp an average needle is, you need to focus on that. Then you should-"

* * *

 **Saturday**

 **Transfiguration Room**

 **1:46 P.M.**

Hermione was packing up some of her supplies she brought to her tutoring sessions, she had been tutoring since nine that morning and she was very thankful that she was done for the day. She just wanted to get a little food from the Great Hall and then skim over the healing books she obtained before meeting up with Harry and Ron. She was about to head out when she saw a familiar face walk into the classroom.

"Oh, it's Cho Chang, right?"

Cho nodded. "Yes, and you're Hermione Granger."

"Do you need anything from me?"

"Mcgonagall asked me to check on all of the new tutors, see how they feel, if they want to continue, et cetera."

"Oh well I would like to continue, and I feel like I did a decent job tutoring… hopefully."

"I'm sure you did a good job." Cho said smiling " I saw Natalie before entering, she asked me what the fastest to library was, I think you made a decent enough impression."

Hermione smiled to herself. While she was plainly aware of how smart she was, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to use her knowledge to help others understand what she was trying to explain. She especially didn't want anyone to think she was showing off what she knew to get attention. So hearing Cho say that she did a good job certainly helped ease her nerves.

"Thanks, although I'm not sure I deserve the praise, Natalie did show signs of frustration but just as quickly she became enthralled… it was actually a little jarring."

"Did you switch up your style of teaching?"

"...Kind of? I only really just showed her why we learn spells the way we do"

Cho gave an understanding look. "Yeah, that's how most Ravenclaws are, quick to get frustrated, but if you give us a good reason for doing something, we'll usually go with it."

"Oh." Hermione said, slightly disappointed that she hadn't come to that realization herself. However Cho picked up on her tone and tried to comfort the younger girl.

"I wouldn't worry about not figuring it out. I didn't even come to the conclusion until almost a year and a half of tutoring here."

Hermione didn't reply, however her stomach did ... with a loud growl. Hermione tried to not blush in embarrassment.

"You want to continue this conversation while going down to the Great Hall?" Cho asked taking pity on the younger girl.

Hermione simply nodded, gathered her things and walked out with Cho.

"So, what else have you noticed about the other Houses while you were a tutor?" Hermione asked curiously.

Cho smiled oddly- almost like no one had ever cared to ask her opinion on the matter. "Oh, well the trouble with Hufflepuffs is that they have no problems doing the hard work but they tend to think that if they work _hard_ enough they will get it. And while hard work is a good quality, it doesn't mean success. You need to work smart too. See you can work as hard as possible and not see any results, but if you use your willpower to work in a smarter way, you'll see more success,does that make sense? Sorry I'm not very good at explaining these types of things."

"I think I understand." Hermione said. " Why push a boulder up the hill when you can levitate it."

"Yes, exactly! "

"So what about Gryffindor students?"

"Oh, Gryffindors...don't get offended but your House tends, to be incredibly independent... For the most part, if a Gryffindor is in tutoring, it means a professor forced them to be there. Gryffindors HATE asking for help, even when they really need it. Something about their pride. So, if you do have tutor one, be patient and be calm. They're bound to be dealing with their own emotions of unworthiness and the like, so try to be nice, but firm.

Hermione nodded slowly. Cho wasn't wrong with her assessment. And as much as she wanted to say that her statement wrong, that she had willingly asked for a tutor in her first year… but it wasn't the same. She had asked someone to help her in a subject that wasn't even taught at Hogwarts (Wizarding Culture).

Hermione knew that her hubris would never let her ask for help, even if she needed it. Third year was a testament to that, how many times had her dormmates or friends asked if they could help her just so she could get through all of her classes. Hell, she wouldn't even let anyone get a book for her at the library… Yeah, Cho nailed it.

"Yeah that sounds about right." Hermione admitted. "So what about Slytherin? What are they like in tutoring?"

"No idea."

"What, Why?"

"Because Slytherins don't come to tutoring with us. I'm pretty sure they have some kind of Inner House tutoring system."

"Why would they need that when there's a perfectly good tutoring club sponsored by the professors?"

"Probably because Slytherins hate showing weakness, especially to other Houses. What with every other House constantly being against them…" Cho said more to herself then Hermione." Of course I'm not saying they're all victims, some of them are down right horrid, like the other day Parkinson- uh never mind." Cho said quickly with a faint blush on her face.

"What happened with Parkinson?" Hermione asked.

"Well, uh she was trying to send a jinx... at you the other day and me and a friend… stopped her from doing so." Cho wasn't looking at her.

"What did you do? I won't think any less of you. I'm not that much of a goody two-shoes."(Anymore)

"It's not about thinking less of me, more about how I shouldn't be acting that way- being a prefect and all."

Hermione hadn't even noticed before, but she was wearing a prefect badge. But for whatever reason she decided to cover her badge with her hair. She thought it was strange. Shouldn't prefects always have their badges out so people know who they are? Did Cho not like the attention? Hermione was extremely curious, but decided not to ask her those questions-yet. "So what exactly did you and your friend, whoever they are, do to Parkinson?"

"Ced- My friend and I just sent a silencing spell followed by a tripping jinx. I know it's not that bad, but we're both prefects we shouldn't exactly be acting that way... But it's just so frustrating that I had to do it, you know. Like even if I saw her actually cast the curse at you, and I reported it. Nothing would happen to her. You know why? Because ' _A staff member didn't see it so therefore there is no proof'_ Honestly, what's the point of being a prefect if you don't have any kind of power. Sure we can take points, but that's it. Even then, some prefects abuse that too! And then there's-" Cho gave an odd look then suddenly went back to a more controlled version of herself.

"Sorry about the outburst. I got really preachy there for a second. I promise I'm not like that a lot- I'm probably just hungry and-

"There's no need to apologize!" Hermione said with a touch of concern.

Cho simply nodded like she's heard it all before and walked silently next her through the halls.

Cho Chang was nothing like Hermione thought she would be. Hermione figured that with being on the Quidditch team and being extremely pretty that she would just ooze self confidence, but no. She seemed very self conscious of herself, acted as if she rarely got to share her opinion with others, and if she did share her opinion it was very short lived and been instantly brushed off… not to mention the constant apologies and the need to please...

"So we made it to the Great Hall,uh, I'll just leave you be-"

"No! I mean I've been enjoying conversing with you, so if your not to busy, I would like to continue."

"Oh, sure. I'm not busy." Cho said.

The pair sat down at the Ravenclaw table and began eating some of the fruits and crackers that were left there between meal times. Hermione wanted to introduce some small talk to get Cho comfortable again, however she realized that she wasn't very good a small talk. And besides, Cho liked talking about her opinion on things… at least that's what Hermione picked up anyway. So Hermione decided to go with the direct approach.

"So Cho, you've lived in the Wizarding World all of your life ,right?"

"Yes…"

"So what's your opinion on house elves and their rights or lack thereof?"

* * *

 **Saturday**

 **Abandoned Charms Classroom**

 **3:27 P.M**

Harry was not happy at the moment. Why? Because two psychotic girls decided that tying him to a chair was going to teach him how to sit properly. Currently his forehead, chest and legs were all tightly tied to a very hard, very uncomfortable wooden chair. But that wasn't even the worst of it.

"Okay, someone walked into your Gala wearing a hint of yellow and silver. Which house are they currently supporting?" Lavender asked.

"Uh… that means they're supporting… MacMillan House?"

"No!" Parvati said. "It means that they're supporting the House of Lovegood!

"But I thought that the Macmillans' House colors were yellow and silver.

"No, they're orange and silver."

"Uhh! Why is this all needlessly complicated! And why am I still tied to the chair. You said you would untie me after thirty minutes!"

"It hasn't been thirty minutes yet, Harry." Parvati said. "You still have a few more minutes to go."

Harry just groaned. Lavender and Parvati both tried to give him a comforting smile, but Harry didn't appreciate it because they were also both trying not to laugh. Harry glared at the two girls.

"Sorry, sorry" Parvati said. "It's just… we both already had to go through this kind of training with our parents, so seeing you doing this… well we understand now why are parents laughed at us."

Harry huffed."I still think this is unnecessary. Shouldn't I be learning about the finances of my House, or my current alliances and rivals. Something worthwhile!?"

Lavender and Parvati shared a look, trying to figure out what to say.

"Harry..." Lavender said. " I know that all of this Pureblood stuff feels… superficial. But it's not. Maintaining proper posture while sitting shows that you are in control of yourself, knowing the colors of other families Houses shows your dedication to knowing absolutely everything about your peers and future allies, knowing which utensils to use and when to use them shows that you are aware of your surroundings, understanding how to-"

"I think he gets the point, Lav." Parvati said. "Look, the first things we're teaching you may seem… mind numbingly stupid, but it's crucial that you get this stuff now and work on the more heavy hitting stuff later. It doesn't matter if you know everything you need to know to manage your family House. If you don't learn how to play the part, you'll be eaten alive. With very little chance of coming back after that."

"Yeah, just look at what happened to the Chang or Vance family when they tried to ignore this part too." Lavender added.

Both girls slightly grimaced.

Harry had no idea what had happened to those families that made both of the girls react like that. But he didn't need to know, all he did need to know was that it was something that wouldn't help him in any future endeavors. Coming to terms that this was the kind of useless information he HAD to learn, he decided to that he should apologize to the two girls. He was the one to ask for their help after all.

" Sorry if I seem ungrateful- I do appreciate you two taking the time out of your day to teach me these matters. I suppose I just was unaware of all of the minute details one must learn to become head of a House. I hope you are able to forgive me for acting the way I did."

Lavender and Partivi were smirking at his apology.

"Not bad, Potter." Lavender said. "But if you wanted your Pureblood apology to be better you should have added more complements to the two of us- and also thrown in a phrase that would make us feel slightly guilty for making you feel the need to apologize."

"Did I do well enough for you to untie me from the chair?"

"No."

"But you said after thirty minutes-"

"No, those bindings don't come off until you correctly name fifteen Britain Family House colors." Partavi said with a smirk.

Harry tried his best not to groan. Tried being the operative word.

* * *

 **Saturday**

 **Abandoned Runes Room**

 **4:03 P.M.**

Ron Weasley was currently alone in the old Runes classroom waiting for his friends to arrive. And while they were supposed to meet there at 4:00 he wasn't upset in the slightest. In fact he was loving the fact he was alone.

For whatever reason, ever since he had read his brothers curse breaking textbooks, he had been obsessed with learning more about runes.

He wasn't sure why he loved the subject, he just did. He didn't think he would go into a future career with runes, but he would at least keeping learning it as a hobby. And Ron thought he could have worst hobbies.

At least Runes could be useful in the trio's cause for defeating You-Know-Who…

Ron flinched slightly. He tried to stop having thoughts like that. Thoughts that would always lead back to defeating You-Know-Who. He wasn't sure when they started to happen. But he did know that he noticed it happening around the middle of summer. He noticed that most of his thoughts would lead to one thing: How is this going to help bring down the Dark Lord.

It was a troubling thought process to say the least. For the past few months, everything he did revolved around finding anything he could that would help take the Dark Lord down. If something had no purpose in taking the evil bastard out, then Ron wouldn't do it. The amount of times he turned down playing Quidditch with his siblings (he would play sometimes so it wouldn't seem to suspicious, just not as much as he normally would have during previous summers) so he could do something more useful with the cause…

But that wasn't the scary part, the scary part was that _all_ three of them acted like this. Hermione had agreed to become a tutor for the sole reason of getting access to more of the younger years, as well as her fellow tutors. Harry was going through pureblood etiquette to not only be around some other year mates, but to hopefully use is head of house status in the future. And he would be going to the chess club tomorrow night. Something he really didn't want to go to.

"Sorry I'm late." Hermione said frantactly coming into the classroom.

"Don't worry about it, Harry still isn't here." Ron replied, forgetting what he was currently thinking about. "I say we give him twenty more minutes before we go find Brown and Patil and demand to know where they hid his body-"

"They aren't going to kill him, Ron."

"Whatever you say, Mione."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "So how was your day, I haven't even seen you before now…" She said slightly put off. While it was true that they shared most of the same classes and the same common room, they didn't get to hang out as much as they were used to since the summer break.

"Good, Harry woke me up around six this morning and about ten minutes later we were out on the Quidditch pitch practicing runs and sprints for maybe thirty minutes. Followed by some sit-ups and push-ups. And you know you could have joined us."

"I ran with you guys everyday this week, I needed a day off. Not everyone can be as fast as you and Harry. "

"Nobody can be as fast as Harry." Hermione rolled her eyes."Anyway after that we went to breakfast, then mostly just spent the day finishing homework and reviewing the healing books you got. Then around three I went to Madam Pomfrey's office and asked her if she could write to Bill and Charlie if you,me or Harry ever get hurt."

"So we've kept our end of the deal with Bill and Charlie then."

"Yep. I've already sent them both a letter telling them that."

"... Did Madam Pomfrey seem suspicious of the request?"

"Not really, you know how she doesn't ask questions." Hermione nodded.

"So, how 'bout you? How did you spend your day?"

"Oh, I woke up around 6:30 this morning, did some morning stretches and yoga, went down to breakfast, then I walked around the castle for a while before tutoring-"

"Wait, you were walking around the castle alone?!" Ron exclaimed.

"Is that a problem?" Hermione asked coolly.

"Yes, in case you haven't noticed, most of the blood purists in the school are out to get you!"

"I can handle them."

"I know that. You're a bloody force to be reckoned with, but they know that about you too. Which is why they would either surround you or try to attack you from the shadows. Either way it's an unnecessary risk for you to be going alone!"

They both stared at each other before laughing at the situation. Who would have thought Ron would be the one telling Hermione off for doing something reckless.

"...But nothing did happen, right?"

"Yes, Ron. Nothing happened. Even if something did happen, you would have heard about. You know how fast news travels at Hogwarts."

Ron had to give it to her, she had a point. "Well did anything interesting happen on your solo adventure?"

"Other than Sir Cadogan jumping from painting to painting to make sure no hooligans tried to hurt me on my walk, no...Anyway after that I went to tutoring for a few hours, then when that was done spent the next few hours conversing with Cho Chang."

"Really? You aren't one to talk for to new people, I mean I get that we're supposed to be making new acquaintances and all, but you don't talk to people for hours at a time."

"I talk to Harry and you for hours at a time-"

"We've been in several life or death situations over the years, we're the exception. You and Cho on the other hand have never had any kind of interaction before, what made her different?"

"... I don't know. She was… _interesting_ to talk to."

" _Interesting_? What do you mean?"

"... She was very quiet and shy , but it wasn't natural. I think she's a very opinionated person but she's just… afraid to show it for some reason. I mean I had to assure her that it was okay for her to speak her mind every five minutes…"

"Maybe it's because she's in Ravenclaw." Ron said nonchalantly. And when he saw Hermione's confused look he elaborated further. "Look, Ravenclaws probably aren't used to people from other houses engaging them in conversation. Probably used to other houses telling them to shut up or something. So while she was talking to you she probably just fell onto a reflex built up over the years. Nothing to worry about."

"Maybe…" Hermione said. But she wasn't so sure. She didn't get to reflect on the thought much longer because Harry walked into the room looking very irritated.

"You're late." Ron said teasingly.

"Those two she-demons tied me to a chair!" Ron started laughing hysterically while Hermione tried to repress her smile.

"Yes, yes go on. Laugh at me."

"Don't play the victim, you asked them to teach you." Ron said still snickering. Harry glared at Ron, which only made Ron laugh harder.

"Keep laughing, Ron , and I'll convince them to teach you next week too."

Ron stopped laughing immediately. "You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

"Wait, so you're going to keep going to their lessons?" Hermione asked.

"... Yes," Harry said, plopping down on a desk. "Not only did they prove that they could be good teachers for me, I also need to prove that the Potter House means business. If I stopped the lesson now… who knows what kind of reprecuations there would be for us in the future if I stopped."

And with the being said, the room more serious. Everything else was completely forgotten, the only thing that mattered was how they were going to train this year to fight off Voldemort.

"Okay, we ready to discuss our plan." Harry said, taking the lead. Both Ron and Hermione nodded.

"First thing we need to talk is healing magic, and how much we need to learn before we can start dueling. Any ideas?"

"We should, at the bare minimum, know how to heal bones, know counter curses,repair muscle tissue, and know how to heal the most common Death Eater curses." Ron said.

"...While I agree we should know those spells, why should we know them before we start practicing dueling?" Hermione asked. "Unless…you expect us-"

"To practice using those types of offensive spells on each other. Yes I do."

"Ron!"

"Look I don't want to do it!" Ron said a little on the defensive side. "But I would rather one of you to use the bone breaker curse on me and learn from it then learning how to deal with it while fighting a Death Eater. We need to know how to fight using actual damaging spells. And also how to deal with them if we are hit by them."

"I'm going to agree with Ron on this one, Mione." Harry said.

Hermione stayed quiet for a few moments before sighing. "I suppose if we don't use real offensive magic will never become better duelers…"

"If you're not okay with this you don't have to-"

"No, no. I knew that doing this, I would have to make some hard choices and I'm all on board. However, I want us to make an agreement right now that if any of us is seriously hurt from a duel, we go to Madam Pomfrey, I don't care if that means Bill and Charlie would know about. I would rather be caught, then being in over our heads."

"Fair enough." Harry said.

"And I wouldn't worry about Bill and Charlie knowing if we got sent to the hospital wing." Ron added.

"Why?" Harry asked confused.

"Because Moody's teaching us Defense against the Dark Arts this year.." Ron answered as if it explained everything.

"I don't follow." Hermione said. " I mean I understand he's considered one of the best aurors in England but-"

"He's not one of the best, he IS the best auror England has had in the past century. And his teaching methods are legendary for being intense but efficient. Moody coming here is a blessing in disguise… If anything Bill and Charlie would be suspicious if we didn't get sent to the hospital wing this year. We can practice more intense spells and claim that we were just trying to be prepared for his class."

And conversation continued like this for the next half hour. In the end the three of them had agreed on what they needed to do for the time being.

Probably the most interesting development was that Harry agreed to teach Ron and Hermione how to cast a Patronus. Harry wasn't sure how good of a teacher he would be, but he would certainly do his best to teach them, like Remus did with him.

And while they were on the topic of difficult magics to master. Harry had shown Ron and Hermione how he was doing with his wandless magic.

He had set down his wand a the floor and managed to cast a Lumos Charm while not touching his wand. And while it did drain him a little, he couldn't be happier with how his independent learning was going. He only hoped that he would get better with time.

* * *

 **Sunday**

 **Hogwarts Hallway**

 **6:56 P.M.**

Ronald Weasley walked down the fourth floor corridor heading towards the chess club meeting. Needless to say, he was nervous. It wasn't the fact that he was a Gryffindor willingly entering a snake pit. No it was the fact he was a Weasley, a child of England's most well known Blood-Traitor line, heading into a snake pit.

Now, logically he knew that they wouldn't attack him on sight. (Probably. Maybe. He wasn't sure.) But he was worried about how they would treat him. Would they simply ignore that he was there, would they all just leave the room so he would be a alone. There were too many unknown variables.

Currently he was wishing that he had let Hermione tag along with him to the meeting. But he had told her no, because right now Harry needed her more then he needed her.

After their meeting (and dinner) yesterday, the three of them went back to the Gryffindor common room and were practicing Morse code on each others hands for a few hours, when Hedwig finally came back after weeks. However the good mood Harry had from seeing his owl changed when he had read the letter she had brought and found out that Sirius was coming back to England to keep an eye on him.

Harry had hastily written letter back to his godfather telling him that it was in his best interest to stay away from the country currently trying to arrest and sent the letter off with Pigwidgeon (Hedwig didn't have the energy to deliver the letter at the moment)

And while none of them said anything, they knew that Sirius would not stay away. No matter what anyone had to say about it. Which had ,understandably, terrified Harry out of his wits.

Which had also pushed Harry into a sense of unrest. Leading the Boy-Who-Lived to stay up all night practicing wandless magic. However Ron and Hermione had expected that kind of outcome. It wasn't the first time he had stayed up all night before.

However the boy still had yet to show any sign of drowsiness all day, even after their intense morning workout. So Ron and Hermione had decided that if Harry wouldn't willingly go to sleep, then they would force him to. The plan was that while he was away at the Chess club meeting, Hermione would slip him a sleeping draught so he would at least have some sleep before classes tomorrow.

But Ron couldn't think about that right now, because he was currently right outside the room for the meeting. He went to open the door, but hesitated.

The hesitation didn't come from an insecurity of his chess skills,(he knew he was good at playing the game) but rather of the consequences of what would happen if he messed up. The only reason he was there was to show the student body that the "Golden Trio" wasn't as closed off as they appeared to be. And also to make new potential acquaintances or if he was lucky, allies.

But he was terrified that he would mess that up. Both Harry and Hermione had opened themselves up to new people. Harry with his Pureblood studies and Hermione with not only her tutoring, but also the "Mudblood" revolution. He didn't want to be the only one not to be able to do that.

He squared himself and once again tried to open the door, but once again he hesitated.

He couldn't do this. More than likely one of the Slytherins would just spend the whole time trying to rile him up, and then he would explode at them in anger. Then word would get around, and everything that Hermione and Harry had built up this past week would crumple. And he couldn't let that happen.

With a sigh, Ron started to walk away from the door, but had only made it two steps when he heard a somewhat familiar voice.

"Ron?" The boy in question, turned around to see his year mate, Susan Bones. "What are you doing here?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, uh. I was…"

"Trying to summon enough nerve to walk in the door?"

"No." Ron said a little too defensively.

Susan gave a small smile. "It's totally fine if you feel that way. That was how it was for me last year."

"Really?"

"Yeah, my aunt told me about the club last year. She said she wanted me to join so I would develop a better strategic mind. And told me that the club would help me with that. However I was still scared to join. I think I came down here and hovered around the door and then left a total of three times before I finally entered."

"... So, how did they react to you joining?" Ron asked the Hufflepuff.

"Well they weren't all hugs and smiles, but they did accept me. No questions asked."

"Do you think they'll accept me?"

"I see no reason they wouldn't. Why? Worried they'll kick you out or something?"

"...Something along those lines."

"They won't. The House lines practically disappear when you enter the room. All that you need to do to make it in this club is to have a strategic mind, and the willingness to improve upon that mind. Can you that?"

"Yes."

"Then follow me to your destiny, young one." Susan said in a mock voice of Professor Trelawney. Ron couldn't help it, but he snorted as Susan opened the door.

Ron entered the room trying to take in the surroundings. It was an average size classroom, except instead of desks, there was only one long table. Surrounding the wall were several paintings of battle scenes and a few weapon making scenes. Along with several weapons and shields adorning the wall. Ron wondered if they were fake… they had to be, this was a school, but it was hard to tell.

If he had to guess , the room used to be used for some type of variation of History or Defense class. Then he looked towards the other three people currently in the room. He didn't recognize any of them, nor the chessboard they were playing with. The board was somehow meant to be played with three people and had multiple levels on it. The three players had all looked over at Susan and himself when they had come in, but didn't really seem all that concerned about it and continued back to their game.

Susan had led him towards the end of the table wear a chessboard had already been set up.

"Um, Susan, shouldn't I be introducing myself to the others in the room?" Ron asked in a whisper, not wanting the others to hear.

"No." She whispered back. " There's only one rule here and it's don't interrupt a match. Well- the exception being its past curfew or someone's attacking the castle. "You can introduce yourself to the club later, okay?"

"Okay."

The two of them had then begun the match with Susan playing black, while he played white. Overall there match had ended in about twenty minutes with Ron as the victor. Not to say Susan was bad, she was probably the best opponent he's had in a while, it was just his skill was much higher than hers.

"So, do we play against each other again or-?"

"No,once you've played a round with someone you have to find a new partner to play against."

"... But everyone else is in the middle of the match."

"Which is why were either supposed to talk about how we can improve our skill until we can start a new match."

"Really. That's what we're expected to do." Ron said with a raised eyebrow.

Susan snorted. "Yes, but most of us don't follow it. We mostly just talk."

"So you wouldn't mind telling me exactly who's in this club."

"I wouldn't mind, no. So first at the end of the table is Theodore Nott and Tracey Davis." 'Oh, they must have come in while we were playing… Was I just that invested in the game to notice… or were they just that sneaky…?'

"Oh I recognize those two from class. They're rather quiet, aren't they."

Susan shrugged. "A bit I suppose. They're polite enough though."

"Really, because I've seen Nott hang around Malfoy a lot over the years…"

"I think that's due to the fact that their fathers are… friends. Personally I don't think he agrees with the pompous jerk."

"You're sure?" Ron pressed.

"Positive... Look I know that Hermione and Dean have been targeted this past week by several students. But trust me, no one in this room was one of them."

"Okay, I trust you." For now anyway. "So what about those three over there playing on the over-dramatic chessboard?"

"First of all, it's our three person chess board- its supposed to help you get better at dealing with multiple situations and how to work together with the the other two players as well as oppose them and- never mind someone else will explain that game to you later.

"Anyway, the boy with with brown hair and blue eyes, that's Tracey's older brother, Edward. He's a Ravenclaw in his seventh year if I'm not mistaken. The girl next to him is Su Li she's also Ravenclaw but is in our year-"

"What do you mean she's in our year?" Ron asked. He thought he knew everybody in his year, he felt like he had to know considering there was less than forty students in their grade.

"Yeah," Susan said. "I don't blame you for not knowing who she is. I didn't know who she was until I joined the club, I just assumed that she was in a different year than me, but the next day I saw that she was in most of my classes. She even sat right next to me and potions!"

"How- how is that even possible."

"...I think she uses notice-me-not charms on herself"

"Why?"

"No idea."

"You've never asked?"

"No, I-" Susan never got to finish her thought because the one person in the room Susan hadn't told him about had stood up and addressed everyone.

"Well, it is quite rare that everyone in the room is finished at the same time, so if you'll be so kind to indulge me, I will decide the next round of teams."

The boy had an air of authority around him, he kind of reminded Ron of Dumbledore in a sense- only less grandfatherly and more proper. The boy was definitely a Pureblood, and one with a lot of power he Ron had to guess based on how he was acting.

The boy himself had a dark tint to his skin, brown eyes, and long dark hair that was pulled back elegantly into a ponytail. The boy also had an accent, Ron had figured it was Eastern European-Turkish maybe.

""So let's see... Li, Nott, and Bones please join together at the three man chess board, and the Davis siblings can go over to right and I'll join our newest member." No one protested and started moving to where they were asked to go.

Ron had a brief moment of panic but did his best to hide that fact as the unknown boy had started walking towards him. With as much grace as he could muster, Ron stood up with hand out, "Good evening, I don't believe we've met before. I'm Ron Weasley."

The boy, now in front of him gave him a calculating glance before introducing himself. "Good evening. You are correct, we haven't met. I'm Zeki Kahramen."

Ron had heard that name before, he just couldn't place where. Oh well it didn't matter right now. The only thing that mattered was showing Kahramen that he belonged in this club.

"So, Kahramen, correct me if I'm wrong, but are you the leader of the club?" Ron asked making the first move of the game.

"Indeed I am, have been since I was in my third year."

"How did a third year convince the club that he should be in charge?"

"Convincing had nothing to do with it," Kahramen said taking the first pawn. "I simply followed the rules of obtaining command that the club established seventy seven years ago."

"And those would be?" Ron said taking Kahramen's pawn.

"Winning three consecutive wins against the current leader."

"That's it?"

"Those are the written rules, yes."

"And the unwritten rules?" Kahramen gave him a once over before answering.

"You need to gain the current leader's respect, and you need to also help others in the club improve their skills."

"What do you mean by improving their skills."

"The club wasn't made for us to simply play chess, it was to help us become better strategists. But one cannot get better without being properly challenged. It's my job to make sure that they get better each time they come here."

"Must be difficult."

Kahramen shrugged. "Not particularly, all one has to do is just push them out of their comfort zones. For example the Davis siblings use very similar strategies in chess. So I put them together so they can learn not to rely on preconceived plans and have to adapt if they want to win.

"And I put Nott, Li, Bones together because they're all defensive players, therefore pushing each of them to be more aggressive in their playing if anyone wants to get anywhere."

Ron was impressed by how dedicated his opponent was to the club and his members, even if his dedication did come off as a little bit too intense. However he didn't have time to think it over because his knight was just taken and he needed to focus.

For the most part the pair of them stayed quiet during the game with the occasional question and answer. Ron had learned that Kahramen was in his fifth year and a Slytherin prefect. But it didn't get any more personal than that.

The game was slowly getting more intense. It was clear to both boys that this was one of the first times they've ever had a real challenging opponent to play against in years. And both were going all out to prove that they were the better player, the better strategist.

Ron was currently planning his next few moves carefully, he only had five pieces left to Kahramen's six, and needed to figure out how to lead him into another trap.

However he never got the chance because a hand was placed on his shoulder taking him out of the zone. He looked up noticing that it was Susan who had done it. Which Ron had found odd, wasn't she the one who had told him one of the rules for this club was to not interrupt a chess game? Well unless-

"Boys,I hate to interrupt, but it's ten minutes to curfew." Susan said.

Ten minutes to curfew! Wait that meant they had been playing for over two hours… How is that even possible? Ron had never played a game for that long before.

"... and we need to get going before Filch tries to give us all detention… again."

Kahramen quirked an eyebrow and smiled . "Davis and I are prefects, we can safely get you all back to your dorms without getting in trouble, Bones."

Susan rolled her eyes. "How about we save that plan for when we really need to use it, Zeki … like when we actually stay past curfew."

"Very well." Kahramen said as he stood up. "I suppose this ends the first chess club meeting of the year. I am glad to see that the summer break did not hinder your skills. As always you will receive a written evaluation of your skills and what you can improve upon form the next meeting. I should have it sent to you all in a day or two by owl. Next meeting will be here again, and I will be here at 6:30 if you would like to discuss your skills with me" He said locking eyes with Susan. Susan, not one to back down apparently, stared back back with an amused smile.

"So we're free to go now?" Susan asked a little too sweetly.

"Yes, everyone's dismissed. Except you Weasley, I want to talk before you go." Kahramen lead Ron to the other side of the room while the others were getting ready to leave.

"Do you you believe you'll be joining us next week?" Kahramen asked getting straight to the point.

"Yes, I do." Ron was surprised that he didn't even hesitate in answering. He had been so busy worrying about how this meeting could go wrong that he never stopped to think about what would happen if it went well. And he did enjoy himself, he couldn't remember the last time he had been challenged while playing chess. So yes, he did want to return because he actually enjoyed himself. And if being here also helped make connections with the other houses, well that was just an added bonus.

"Excellent, I must admit, it has been a while since someone has been on par with my skill… Might I ask who taught you?"

"Oh, well I wasn't taught… it was more I watched my older brothers play against my dad… I just kind of learned from watching I guess."

"Interesting." Kahramen muttered so quietly that Ron assumed that he wasn't supposed to hear.

"...And what about you. Who taught you?"

"My grandmother. She wanted… me to be disciplined in the art, and so I was." Ron had a feeling that there was more to the story but decided not to ask. He didn't know the boy well enough to ask nor did he have the time for an explanation. He only had seven minutes to make it to Gryffindor tower. And with that he said goodbye to him and promptly left the room.

Only to immediately run into Susan.

"Hey Ron! So are you joining us next week?"

"Yes. Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be."

"See, I told you there was nothing to worry about." Susan said smiling. Ron was surprised how easy it was to talk to her. She was a really nice and welcoming person, someone he didn't think he was going to meet that night.

"Hey Susan, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"What was going on between you and Kahramen during the end of the meeting."

"... I'm not quite sure I know what you're talking about." She said with her voice slightly higher than normal."

"You know, how you were challenging him, how he subtly suggested that you should come in early next week-"

"Oh that," Susan started saying with red adorning her cheeks. "Uh,he just wants me to improve my skills… he's very dedicated to helping us… anyway I better go to my dorm, don't want Filch to give me detention or anything. So bye and I'll see you next week!"

Susan quickly went down the stairs. Ron followed her lead by going up the stairs as quickly as possible with a small smile on his face. He couldn't believe it. He actually accomplished his task of making friends. He and Susan seemed to get along well, and he managed to get along with Kahramen, and he was a Slytherin! Ron had managed to make it back to the Fat Lady With a minute to spare. He had said the password and entered the Gryffindor common room.

Where he saw Hermione sitting on top of Harry.

"I do not need a potion to fall asleep, Hermione!" Harry protested, trying to escape.

"I beg to differ, Harry. Now either you willingly drink the potion or I will force you to. And stop trying to free yourself, it won't work.I'm sitting on your center of gravity-"

"Hermione get off me!"

Ron couldn't help it that he started laughing at the two.

* * *

 **Sunday**

 **9:57 P.M.**

 **Slytherin Dorm Room**

Daphne Greengrass was currently laying on her bed checking over her homework to make sure it was acceptable for tomorrow. Although she was having a hard time concentrating at the moment. In fact she was having a hard time concentrating all week. Not only was she concerned that the Dark Lord was coming back, sooner rather than later, she was also concerned with the status quo.

The status quo was something she had never seen disrupted before, and yet this week it had been. She thought when Dean Thomas had called Hermione Granger a mudblood it was only a joke. That nothing would come from it.

She was so very wrong. Not only had the slur loose practically all meaning this week, but it had unified muggleborns across the other three houses.

Of course that didn't mean weren't any consequences. There were currently around twenty students in the hospital wing all for "mysterious injuries". (It was times like these that she truly questioned how Hogwarts had such a good reputation.)

But this so called "Mudblood Revolution" would die out just like the many variations before it. That is what her father had written to her, it is what many parents had written their children this week. All they had to do is wait and not engage. She had no problem following those instructions. However for some members of her House found that near impossible. Like Parkinson, who stupidly tried to hex Granger in the hallway, only to be to be attacked by Chang and Diggory before she could do anything. (Not that Daphne saw that or anything.) It wasn't until this morning that it was decided on as a House, that they would stop attacking the muggleborns and wait for the "Revolution" to end. (Well actually, Lucius Malfoy, using his son as a messenger, told everyone in the House to stop attacking the mudbloods. Many of the students weren't happy, but none of them dared take on the Malfoy head of House. His word was law.)

Daphne sighed. Why was she even thinking about this? She was supposed to be checking her homework, so she could get excellent grades. Those excellent grades would help her get a good, pure-blooded husband, Then she could pass on her family name to another worthy she could have worthy, pure-blooded children which she would teach to value only the family reputation. Just as her parents had taught her. Then she would spend the rest of her days maintaining the status quo, giving nothing else of value to the world.

This was her role in life and she had accepted it.

 _Pathetic. Do you really have no ambition? What kind of a Slytherin are you? Don't you want more out of life?_

That thought had been appearing over and over in her mind for the entire week. She blamed Granger for her stupid revolution and Potter for his new found interest in Pureblood politics. That wasn't how it was supposed to work! You were either taught since birth how to serve your family, or you didn't care and live like a common wizard. You can't- you don't get to decide halfway through your life that you're interested. That wasn't how it was supposed to be!

And yet it was what had happened… but why did that make her happy?

 _You know why. Stop pretending you don't._

Change. She was happy-no inspired- because those two showed that they can change the status quo. That you can go against the norm… that she could do more than what was expected of her.

Suddenly her dorm mate, Tracey had come into the room.

"Daphne, you'll never guess what happened."

"You finally won a game?"

"Rude." Tracey huffed.

"I didn't hear a 'yes'."

"Back to my original point, Ron Weasley joined the club tonight."

That was... interesting. "Did he say why he joined?"

"I didn't get to talk to him. When Nott and I came in he was already playing with Bones. Then Kahramen plays against him for over two hours-"

"Weasley lasted two hours?"

"Lasted implies that he lost. They only stopped because of the curfew."

That was impressive. Kahramen was the greatest strategist she had ever met. (He had to be considering who he was) But the fact that Weasley had been able to keep up with him was impressive.

But it also raised a few questions. Like ,why now? You can't just learn how to play chess over a summer, and you certainly can't be good enough to be a challenge Kahramen… which implies that Weasley was good at chess for years… so why did he join this year?

That was when realization struck. They were making a move! Why didn't she realize this sooner. The way the three of them were acting during the opening feast, how they handled Malfoy, talking to others in their year.

They were branching out! Weasley going to the chess club… getting some of the smartest, most strategic people in the school. (It didn't matter that there were so few members, the members that did join had major connections to the wizarding world and were loyal to each other.)

Potter attracted the Purebloods by learning more about his House and implying that he would be using it, unlike his father before him.

And Granger had attracted every single muggleborn in the castle. Not to mention that she was in the Tutor's club.

This was huge! But what exactly were they planning… She should write to her father about this… but she didn't want to… but she was supposed to…

No, she won't write to him yet. She should wait until she has more information before going to him.

"Hey Daphne?"

"Pardon?" Daphne asked, coming out of a daze.

"You okay? You were staring of into space."

"I'm fine."

"You sure?"

 _If Potter, Weasley and Granger can change how things are... why can't you? For once in your life do something you want to do._

"...Actually I need your help with something. "

"With what?"

"How would you feel about being a prefect next year?"

"What?! Where did that come from?If anyone in our year is going to be prefect, it's going to be you."

" _... Draco and Pansy shall be prefects in their fifth year, and none of you are going to fight this. We do not want inner conflict in our alliance, do we?"_

"I can't be prefect."

"Why not- oh" Daphne was relieved that Tracey was smart enough to understand. Tracey, as well as Zabini, had figured out by their second year that there was an unspoken alliance between the Malfoy, Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, Greengrass, and Nott houses.

And it took them even less time to figure out that while those in the alliance couldn't talk about the alliance, they could easily confirm suspicions.

"So if you can't be prefect… that means Parkinson going to be?!

"Yes."

"But- but there's no way Snape would pick her. She's barely passing classes. Snape has high standards with his prefects."

"He does, however once he picks Malfoy as prefect, all he has to do is suggest who he would like to have beside him. He'll of course pick Parkinson-"

"Because she worships the ground he walks on-"

"And Snape will listen to him because he's his Godfather."

"...But couldn't Snape still pick you? You're academically ranked fourth in our year!"

"He won't because I went to his office earlier this week to tell him that I do not want to become prefect next year."

"Damn. So that leaves us with Bulstrode, Parkinson and me to choose from…"

"Bulstrode does worse in her studies that Parkinson, so it's really between you and Parkinson."

"Great… But what's to stop him from picking Parkinson over me anyway. We both know Malfoy always gets his way, and not to mention I'm a halfblood-"

Daphne held up her hand silencing her best friend while simultaneously rolling her eyes. She hated the word Halfblood, simply because it was too vague a word. Halfblood just meant that you're not a muggleborn, and that you're not a pureblood. A child of two muggleborns is a halfblood. A child of two halfbloods was a halfblood. A child of a pureblood and a halfblood was a halfblood. The only reason Tracey was considered a halfblood was because of her great grandfather was a muggleborn.

"And in case you've forgotten, so is Snape. And Snape won't ask Malfoy who he would also want as prefect IF he already has a good choice to choose. "

 _Please say you'll do it. Just once I want to to do something that goes against the alliance._

"...Okay I'll do it." Daphne smiled. "Mostly because I can't stand the thought of Parkinson getting it. So, how am I going to convince Snape to choose me?"

"So first you're going to tell Snape that you want to be prefect. He respects those who are upfront and honest with him. Then he'll ask you to how you plan on impressing him to become one. So you'll say you want to be a Slytherin tutor-"

* * *

 **What is up my dudes? Sorry its been so long, but college is bitch this year. Anyway hope you enjoyed this new chapter! Its over 10,000 words!**

 **And I know it's a lot to digest but you'll like it.**

 **Also I hope you were paying attention to the names(especially in the chess club wink wink) they may or may not be important later.**

 **Also I hope you guys liked my OC Zeki Kahramen. And I know some people don't like OCs but he is needed. Also I feel like in the Harry Potter fandom, OCs are okay because there are hundreds of students at Hogwarts. And don't worry he is the only OC that you need to know.**

 **Next chapter will hopefully be up before June, the goal is sometime in February, but I want to do well in school though.**

 **If you have any questions or comments please write a review for me!**

 **Until Next Time.**


	10. Chapter 10

" **Hey, how much money do you have?"**

" **69 cents."**

" **You know what that means."**

" **I don't have enough to buy the rights to Harry Potter."**

* * *

 **Dark Magic**

The month of September came and went and Hogwarts students were currently in their third week of October. And with only a few more days until the other two schools came to Hogwarts! Most of the students were excitedly chatting about the tournament coming up, who they thought was going to be the Hogwarts champion, what they thought the tasks would be, etc. While the staff was busy trying to make sure that all of the arrangements were set in place. There was a lot riding on the Triwizard Tournament, and the staff didn't want anything going wrong.

However Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed to be the only ones in the castle that didn't care much about the upcoming spectacle. It wasn't like they hated the idea that two other schools would be coming into their territory, possibly bringing a disruption to their already established schedule, and bringing any number of possible dangers into the school… oh wait they DID hate that idea. But it's not like they had much of a say in stopping it, so they ultimately decided to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. However there was one problem.

How do you prepare for the worst if you have no earthly idea of what it could be?

 **Saturday**

 **Abandoned Charms Classroom**

 **4:56 P.M.**

"Stupefy!"

"Silencio!"

Harry watched on from the sidelines as Ron and Hermione dodged the the spells they had cast at each other.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted aiming at Hermione's leg.

Hermione spun out of the way and pointed her wand towards the floor. "Aguamenti! Glacius!" She said freezing the floor where Ron was standing.

Harry watched the two of them fight it out from the sidelines. Trying to figure out what the two of them needed to improve on. It was actually kind of interesting, at least in Harry's opinion, how his two best friends fought. Hermione knew more spells then Ron and himself. However her perfectionist tendencies made her spells take longer to cast. Giving her opponent time to prepare for the oncoming spell.

Ron on the other hand had a better strategic mind. His opening moves always tested how his opponent would react. And he would use that knowledge to predict what spell his opponent would cast before they fired. But he also put a lot of stock in his predictions. And if he turned out to be incorrect he would falter. Giving his opponent an upper hand, if only for a few seconds.

And then there was Harry. He had a natural fighting style. He relied solely on instinct and adrenaline and that was enough to let him win every single mock duel he had gone into. (Except for the one duel where it was himself vs Ron and Hermione, they had been the victors that day, but only by the skin of their teeth.) However, he was not without fault. His biggest weakness was that he went into a duel without a plan of attack. He just reacted. Which was fine for the mock duels, but he knew that if he wanted to survive an attack against Voldemort, he would need more than luck and instincts to win.

"Expelliarmus!" Ron said, while Hermione went into rolling somersault to avoid the spell.

"Expecto Patronum!" A bright silvery- white otter burst out of Hermione's wand a bolted straight towards Ron. And even though that charm had no effect on humans, Ron, on instinct,moved out of the way of the flying animal coming towards him. Hermione used his slight panic to her advantage.

"Expelliarmus!" Ron was immediately wandless, making Hermione the victor. Harry found that rather odd. Normally duels between and Hermione and Ron lasted, at minimum five minutes… and Hermione had won in less than ninety seconds… something was off.

"Ron… are you okay?" Hermione asked. Realizing the same thing as Harry.

"Fine." Ron answered in a neutral voice. "Why?"

"It's just…" Hermione was at a loss for words.

"It's just you've been pretty out of it today." Harry finished. It wasn't the first time Harry had seen that look on his best friend's face. In fact the pensive look seemed to have been appearing more and more frequently this week. "Is there something on your mind?"

Ron stayed silent for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. " I've… been thinking."

"About?" Hermione prodded.

"...Do you think we're doing enough- I mean I know we've been working our asses off since summer but… I don't know. I just feel like it's not enough."

" How so?" Hermione asked.

"It's just, I've been talking to Kahramen-

" He's the chess club captain, right?" Harry asked.

Ron nodded.

"What about him?" Hermione asked.

" The two of us aren't friends by any means… but we do respect each other… he's given me some advice on how to play better."

" Okay?" Harry said sharing a look with Hermione. Both equally confused on why chess advice was causing their friend to act like this. " What's his advice."

" … The only way to take down your opponent is to know everything they know."

At first Harry didn't understand why Ron sounded so hesitant to say this. But realization dawned on him a few moments later. And assuming by Hermione's sudden gasp, she had pieced it together too.

" You... you want us to learn… Dark magic?" Hermione managed to choke out.

"...'Want' isn't the word I would use."

Harry suddenly had a flashback to when he went to Gringotts and was given his parents old school books and journals… as well as the dark book his account manager had given him.

"I mean… it makes sense." Hermione said. " If we understood the kind of Dark magic V-V-Voldemort uses then we could, in theory, be better prepared to fight against it."

"That's what I was thinking. But the problem is where do we even find that kind of information. " Ron said.

"I actually already have a book on the stuff-"

"What!?"

"When I went to Gringotts over the summer," Harry explained. " My account manager, he packed up, what I at first thought was just textbooks and journals from my parents, but then I saw that he placed an old book about… well to my understanding it's an introductory book for Dark magic."

" What? That doesn't make any sense."Ron said.

"Why would he give you that?" Hermione asked.

Harry then went on to explain what he neglected to tell Ron and Hermione all those months ago.

" Harry, why didn't you tell us?" Ron said, while Hermione was lost in thought. "We wouldn't have been upset because your mom had read-"

" That wasn't why I didn't tell you guys. When Hermione and I had walked in, something felt off. And when I was alone in my vault… I wasn't fearful but I was on edge. I felt like… I don't know. I was being judged or something."

"Yeah," Hermione said, much to Harry's surprise. "I didn't want to tell you this , because you looked stressed out already, but I also noticed some strange behavior from the goblins. I thought it was just my mind over-analyzing the situation but it seemed like the goblins kept looking over in my direction and that they were talking about me."

"Did you hear what they were saying?"

"No, they were too far away for me to hear."

"Okay," Harry said. " So something is going on with the goblins, but the fact remains that we have access to a dark book. Are we going to use it?"

Nobody answered for a minute.

"Look," Ron said. "It's not like we'll become evil by reading through a book, right? I say we read through it and then decide what we should do with the information."

"That seems reasonable to me." Hermione said, still looking somewhat uncomfortable with the situation. " But what are we going to do about the goblins? I'm not sure if I'm simply overreacting or not, but the fact remains that the goblins gave you a Dark book that, in essence, belonged to your mother. They wanted you to read it, Harry. The only question is why."

Harry nodded to what Hermione was saying. " I'll go back during the Yule break, try to see if I can weasel any information out of them. Do you think anyone will find it suspicious if I go?"

"No, no one will care if you go to Gringotts, and if they do, for whatever reason, just tell them that your learning about your Lordship. No one will question that."

"True," Harry said. "Okay so next Saturday we should probably bring the book here and we can study it together. It's our safest bet, we can't get caught with a Dark book."

"Okay, that sounds like a plan, but is it really the best idea to put all of our eggs in one basket?"

"What?" Both boys asked.

"We have come to some sort of conclusion that in order to defeat the Dark arts, we need to have a better understanding of them. But say that we decide, as a group, that we to continue to research and understand the Dark arts. Do we really want to rely on the goblins, who may or may not have an ulterior motive, to provide us with the information we want to research?"

"You want us to find another source?" Ron said.

" Yes."

"How? We can't exactly go to the library and ask for some Dark books."

Harry started to tone out Hermine and Ron's discussion while his mind went into overdrive. He knew that they would most likely want to read more on the Dark magic, as much as that thought hurt, it was in the best interest to be prepared. And Hermione was right, they had to find another outlet for information, not only because he didn't trust the goblins at the moment, but because he wasn't sure he could wait until December to go. So where to go? Library was out, they couldn't risk getting caught. Although he did have an invisible cloak and the Marauder's Map... No, Dumbledore knew about the cloak… and possibly the map. No, they weren't going to risk being caught by Dumbledore, so what was outside his control?

They could go to Knockturn alley? No. Bad idea. A muggleborn, a blood traitor, and the Boy-Who- Lived… they wouldn't two minutes.

His vaults might have something, but that was goblin territory… Sirius came from a dark family. He would probably know what to do. But he was also on the run, Harry didn't want to burden him even more.

Damn, there HAS to be some way to get this information! Seriously! With their research they had discovered that Voldemort- well Tom Riddle- was born and raised in the muggle world, and he had managed to find a resource that allowed himself to create a memory of himself in an object by age sixteen, not to mention the fact that he also found the Chamber of ... oh there was an idea.

"We can't go to Knockturn alley, Ron!"

"But what if we were under the polyjuice potion."

"Do you even hear yourself, there are so many ways that could go wrong!"

"Guys," Harry said, interrupting his bickering friends. "I know where we can find Dark information." Harry took a deep breath. " We go to the same place that Riddle probably learned it all: The Chamber of Secrets.

"Harry you can be ser-"

" I'm being serious, Hermione. While I was in the chamber, I fought against a- a shade of a sixteen year a young Voldemort. He was still in school, guys. Where do you think he learned how to create a shade that could take over somebody's mind, the library? He had to have learned it somewhere, right?Besides, it seems a little weird for Salazar Slytherin to create a massive secret chamber and only put a basilisk in it. And it's also called the Chamber of Secrets, plural on secret-"

"Harry, after everything that happened, you want to go back down to the Chamber again?" Ron asked.

"I'd rather not, but Trelawney made a prediction about Pettigrew escaping and him helping Voldemort rise once again, then I had a dream with the two of them over the summer. We need all the help we can get. An attack could happen at any moment."

"I know but-"

" Why are you acting like this? You're the one who brought up learning Dark magic!"

" Well maybe I don't want to go down to the hellhole that plagues my sister's nightmares-"

"Boys stop!" Hermione said, trying to prevent a fight between them. "Okay, I think we can all agree that Slytherin's Chamber is a place none of us WANT to go, however it is our best chance to find information we couldn't find anywhere else. Personally, I am… willing to go down to check it out. Who knows what Voldemort possibly could have learned down there. We need to be ready."

"So am I." Harry added. Leading the pair of them looking at their redheaded companion. Ron was silent for a moment, looking like he was weighing his options. He sighed and slumped over, clearly coming to a decision that he didn't like.

" I'll go with you. Strength in numbers and what not." Ron squared his shoulders. "However, if something freaky happens down there, we leave. Hypothetically learning more about Dark magic and Voldemort isn't worth our lives. Agreed?

Harry could understand where Ron was coming from, he nearly lost his little sister down there and he clearly didn't want to risk anyone else.

"Sounds fair." Harry said.

"I can agree to that." Hermione said. " So when should we plan on going?"

"Tonight," Ron said, taking control of the conversation. "The teachers are busy trying to make sure the Hogwarts is ready for the other schools."

Harry paused, Ron surprised him. First he doesn't want to go, then he does a one- eighty and wants to go tonight?

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." Harry said. " And Sunday won't work for us anyway, Lavender and Parvati both want to teach me more about the relationships and rivalries of all the Noble Houses in Britain at ten in the morning tomorrow. Hermione has tutoring all afternoon, and Ron has a Chess meeting in the evening. And I'd rather not cancel, we don't know what the consequences could be."

"Why can't we just go down there next Saturday?" Hermione asked.

"Because we don't need to worry about the other schools AND what's in the Chamber." Harry said.

"Yeah, better to just get it out of the way." Ron said in agreement.

"Okay, I suppose that gives us some time to prepare,"Hermione said with a tone Harry couldn't decipher . Probably had something to do with Ron's sudden change of heart. "What time are we leaving?"

"Around midnight." Harry replied. "Most people should be in their dorms asleep."

"What if we don't get back before they wake up."

Ron snorted. " Please, we're the early birds in the tower, they'll just assume that we got up before them."

"Okay, I suppose we have a semblance of a plan. Come on, we should have dinner now so we can have more time to prep for tonight."

"Actually Hermione, you go on ahead, Harry and I will clean up the room first, we'll meet you down there."

It was a blatant lie. First of all, they didn't leave a mess in the room. Second, nobody ever came into the classroom so it didn't matter if it was messy.

Hermione opened her mouth, only to shut it immediately. She looked at both of them before replying " Alright, I'll see you down there _shortly._ " With that being said, Hermione left the room, leaving the two boys alone.

"Ron-"

"The Chamber of Secrets! Are you fucking kidding me! Ron yelled at him. " You must be bloody insane!." Ron started pacing "Ginny almost died down there! YOU almost fucking died down there! Now you want to go back-"

"If you're so against it why did you not only agree to it, but suggest we go tonight?"

"Because I know you. I knew that you would have gone tonight and I knew you would have gone with or without me."

"That's not true." Harry lied.

"Don't lie to me."

"Look,you're the one who mentioned that we should learn more about dark magic-"

"I meant that we should start with the basics-"

"The basics won't be enough to save our lives!"

"And trying to go beyond our capabilities might get us killed!"

They both went quiet. Neither knew what to say. So they both just tried to take deep breaths and calm down.

"Merlin, when did you become the responsible one?" Harry asked trying to lighten the mood.

Ron groaned. "No idea… Harry listen,

"No don't. I understand why you didn't want us to go down there. I mean after what happened with me and Ginny…"

"Yeah."

"...You know I won't force you to go."

"I know that, but I can't just stay behind while you and Hermione go. Besides, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the basilisk was the only dangerous thing down there."

"Here's to hoping…"

"Yeah."

There was a somewhat awkward silence between the two boys as they left. Both unsure how tonight was going to unfold.

* * *

 **Author's notes:**

 **I'm not dead! And also not gonna lie, not feeling this chapter. Not sure if it's because it's taken me so long to write and I'm bitter about it, or if it's because it's not that good. But here it is anyway. Hope you like it.**

 **And hopefully I'll finish the next chapter before July ( parts of it are already written because it was supposed to be apart of this chapter. I just wanted to put something because you guys have been waiting for so long)**

 **I also wanted to thank everyone who has followed and favorited this story in the last five months I've been away! Hopefully I won't have another long abstinence again.**

 **Until next time.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:Blah blah blah, I don't own Harry Potter.**

 **One Thousand Year Old Secrets**

 **12:14 A.M**

 **Hogwarts Hallway**

 **Sunday**

Harry, Ron ,and Hermione were quickly sneaking through the Hogwarts corridors trying to reach their destination. Ron and Hermione were ahead under the invisible cloak, while Harry was closely behind them holding the Marauder's map.

So far their night, or rather morning, had been good. No one was in the common room to catch them sneaking out, the prefects and teachers were scouting areas on the opposite side of the school. Even Myrtle wasn't haunting the bathroom at the moment! Everything was , for once, going smoothly.

Harry cynically wondered how long that would last.

Once inside the bathroom, Ron and Hermione took off the cloak. Hermione put the cloak in Harry's expandable bag, while Ron took watch of the map, letting Harry go to the sink to try and open the Chamber, as they had planned earlier in the evening.

Harry had expected it would take a few attempts to get the entrance to open, due in large part to not speaking the snake language in such a long time. But to his surprise, he managed it on his first attempt. Odd. However, Harry was quickly brought out of his thoughts from Hermione's question.

" The Entrance to Salazar Slytherin's Chamber is… is a slide?" She said in disbelief.

It was silent for a moment, before Ron and Harry burst out laughing. The first time they entered the Chamber, they had been too worried about Ginny at the time,but now… Harry could picture the high and mighty Lord Slytherin… going 'weeeeeee' on his way down.

"Can you two be serious?" Hermione asked seriously while looking quizzingly into the entrance. "How are we supposed to get back up here?"

"Shit, knew we forget something." Ron muttered.

"We could go down to the Quidditch field and borrow some brooms for the night. " Harry suggested.

"Wait," Hermione said, tearing her gaze away from the entrance . "I think I have a theory. Harry, I need to know exactly what you said to get the entrance to open."

"Not much to tell, I just said- er hissed- the word 'open'."

"How did you know saying 'open' would work?"

"Uh, I..." Harry said, taken off guard by Hermione's question. " I don't know. I was in a rush second year, just said the first thing that came to mind."

"That's what I assumed," Hermione said. " So that leaves two possibilities, either the Chamber of Secrets opens up to any phrase of Parseltongue or-"

"Or I unknowingly used some sort of ...wandless Parseltongue magic to open the Chamber. " Harry finished. Was it really possible? He had been reading and re-reading books on wandless and wordless magic since the school year started, all of which had eluded to the possibilities of unknown wandless and silent magic yet to be discovered. And Harry wondered if he was excelling much faster than the books described because he was a Parcelmouth.

Whatever, that wasn't important right now. He needed to see if was able to use Parselmagic.

Harry walked over to the entrance and used the only word that came to mind, ' _Stairs_ '.

It wasn't anything spectacular, but stairs started to form at the top and were quickly going down. But what was interesting was how he could feel his magic drain as the stairs were being formed. It wasn't a huge drain like the first few times he tried to cast without a wand , but enough to make him stumble to the ground.

"Whoa! You okay?" Ron asked.

" Yeah, just a bit light-headed." Harry said, getting back up to his feet looking back at the stairs. It was now or never. " Look if you two don't want-"

"Oh shut it," Ron said taking the first steps in the entrance. "Do you really need to go into this speech every time?"

"He's done it so much that it's most likely an ingrained habit by now. "Hermione said with mock concern.

"That's so sad."

"It really is."

"You know, I'm right here." Harry tried saying in an irritated voice, but his small smile ruined the effect. "We should probably close the entrance while we're down there."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "If the professors found out we went down there, they would demand to know what we were doing." Hermione nodded in agreement.

The three of them took a few steps down, Harry hissed the word ' _Close'_ , while Hermione and Ron lit their wands. Then they all started walking further and further down into the Chamber. After ten minutes, they managed to get to the bottom of the stairs, (" _Next time we take the slide."_ ) and continued walking.

They continued walking through the corridor , ignoring the rodent skeletons and shredded basilisk skin. Then they were stopped by the wall of rocks that was caused from Lockhart's botched up memory charm. And the small gap Ron had managed to create two years ago , had caved in at some point.

Thankfully Hermione knew a spell that pushed the rubble to the sides of the room. And with that obstacle out of the way, the three of them managed to get to the second (and completely unnecessary) set of doors to the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry, once again used Parseltongue to open the doors. The three waited for the doors to open to reveal- nothing but darkness. It was understandable. They were completely underground, no chance of light coming through. However the idea of searching through Syltherin's Chamber with nothing but their wand lights was extremely off putting.

But last time Harry came through everything was lit…

'I wonder,' Harry thought.

* * *

Hermione was currently racking her brain for any spells that she could use to help light the entirety of Slytherin's Chamber. Only for Harry to hiss next to her. Before either her or Ron could ask what he said, the room was slowly being lit by the various torches in the room. However before she (or Ron for that matter) could thank him, she saw the dead basilisk.

She froze… and Hermione found that to be an odd reaction. She had been well aware that she would see Slytherin's monster tonight. And yet she still couldn't move… even without the creatures eyes- the monster could still petrify her.

And she hated it.

Back in second year, she was terrified of the mysterious monster. She never let on that she was afraid, her Gryffindor pride wouldn't let her. But being a muggleborn, she knew that the monster could attack her at any point. That was why she was so involved in the polyjuice potion, why she had no problem stealing from Snape, and sneaking into the Slytherin dorm. She was terrified that the monster would kill her and all the other muggleborns that year.

Then she figured out what the creature could be, but she stupidly she went went to the library alone to confirm her idea. Once her idea had been proven she immediately went to tell someone, the first person she had come across Penelope Clearwater, the Ravenclaw prefect.

Thankfully Clearwater had believed her and they set off to go to tell Dumbledore. They had almost made it out of the library when Clearwater had made her stop. It was then that Hermione realized that they were alone. That two muggleborn girls were alone in the castle while the rest of the school was outside for the Quidditch game.

Clearwater ,thinking quickly, rummaged through her bag, while Hermione wrote down " _pipes"_ on the page she had taken , just in case. Clearwater then showed Hermione the mirror, both understanding the danger both of them were in at the moment.

They didn't make it that far, maybe 20 seconds later they held seen the monster's terrifying glowing eyes through the mirror's reflection.

She would then find herself in the hospital wing at the end of the school year , muscles stiff, throat dry, and scared out of her mind. It had taken a few minutes for her to calm down and for her mind to realize that the monster couldn't hurt her.

She had tried to brush off the whole ordeal, claiming that it hadn't affected her. Harry and Ron had tried to get her to open up, but she would always say she was fine. The two never believed her, but by the time third year started they had never brought it up again.

And, if she was being honest, she hadn't thought about the attack since then either. But seeing the creature that had caused her so much pain… it brought tears to her eyes.

She wiped away her tears angrly, it was stupid. The monster was dead, it couldn't hurt her anymore.

' _I thought I was over this…'_ Hermione thought to herself.

* * *

"You okay?" Harry asked her.

"I'm fine." Hermione said, being brought out of her thoughts.

"You're crying…" Harry said concerned.

"It's not important right now. We came here to search for information. We only have so many hours before we have to go back up to our rooms so let's get started." Hermione said, beginning to search around.

Harry and Ron gave each other a look of concern, but they both knew she was right, they only had so many hours down here, better get started.

After an hour and thirty minutes, they had found nothing. They had searched every nook and cranny of the giant room, and found nothing. Then Harry had the idea to look in the room the the basilisk had come out of… which was filled with small animal skeletons and nothing else.

All three of them were getting frustrated, they had come all the way down here and had found nothing!

"There has to be something down here!" Harry exclaimed. " 'Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four', that wasn't a spell, that was a password. It had to be! So how did Riddle find it."

"Maybe one of his year mates told him about it." Ron mumbled, struggling to stay awake.

"Maybe… but Riddle doesn't seem the type to ask for help."

"Harry," Hermione said. "It's two in the morning, and we haven't gotten any closer to finding anything… I think we should call it a night-"

"What!" Harry exclaimed. "How can-"

" She has a point, we've got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow, and I'd rather sleep than continue looking for nothing." Ron said.

"Besides Harry," Hermione said . "It wasn't a complete waste, you learned how to use Parselmagic-"

"Granted it wasn't that hard,all you have to do is just say what you want to happen and it will happen." Ron added.

"... Say that again." Harry requested.

Ron looked a little confused but still obliged. " Uh, using Parselmagic isn't that hard because all you have to-" Ron had a look of realization. " You don't think…"

"Possibly, Hermione what do you think?"

"Well,-"

"Abridged version, please." Ron interrupted.

Hermione huffed. " I don't know. The magic spells we use all come from Latin and Greek roots that are perfectly translated… so it's possible that Parselmagic works the same there might be limitations we don't know about... "

"Think I should test it out?" Harry asked.

"Yes. But don't go overboard. You nearly fell after you conjured the stairs-"

"I wasn't ready!"

"And," Hermione continued ignoring Harry's interruption, " We have no idea how draining using Parselmagic can be. So be careful, okay."

Harry nodded and chose his words carefully. " _Show me the secrets you showed Tom Marvolo Riddle."_

For a split second nothing happened, then he felt a strong pull of his magic that would have made him drop to his hands and knees if he hadn't prepared for it. Suddenly there was a bright golden flash of light shined through the floor beneath his feet and then the light traveled to the back left corner of the room. When the light reached the wall, it traveled up and created a bright outline of a rectangle that was split in the middle. Harry thought the outline looked like a stone elevator. And that couldn't have been more true, when the outline started to split down the middle and separate, creating an entrance to an unknown room. The light then disappeared.

The three of them wordlessly walked towards the unknown room, wands at the ready. When the three of them looked inside, they were surprised at how mundane it looked. Inside was a large stone desk, a moving painting of Hogwarts being constructed, and a wall-long bookcase holding a few dozen books and potion vials.

Hermione was the first to break out of the daze and walked into the room, Harry and Ron followed behind her. Soon all of them quickly cast detection spells on the entire room, not trusting that this area was secure. When they found nothing they started to spread out and explore the small room. Ron went to investigate the desk, Harry tried to find any secret compartments in the room, and Hermione went over to the book shelf and picked a random book and started flipping through a few pages.

Ron found nothing in or on the desk. The two glanced to Hermione who was walking towards them and looking extremely frustrated.

" What's wrong?" Harry asked her. She set down three different books on the desk.

" These books are written in some sort of language that I've never seen before. I'm assuming there some kind of magical language that I'm not familiar with. Ron do you recognise it?"

Ron looked down to the book Hermione was holding. "... It doesn't look familiar… it could be some kind of code."

" Maybe, but I don't think so." Hermone opened the rest of the books up." If Slytherin truly did not want anyone to read his writings he would have taken them with him when he left Hogwarts."

Harry came over to see what all the fuss was about and looked down at the text.

" _The subtitles of mind magic are still eluding me. Recently I have been training several of my more advanced students in the art, however they all are failing at mastering the discipline. Perhaps mind magic is only meant for those with extremely powerful magical cores. After all Helga, Rowana, and Godric have all mastered the art after I taught them._

 _Perhaps the fault is mine. I suppose the next course of action is to let one of the others attempt to teach the course. To figure if the fault lies in myself as a teacher, or the fault lies on the method of how it is taught."_

" - I suppose the text could be an ancient form of the Mermaid language, but I don't think that's the case." Ron said.

" Guys, I understood the text." Harry said.

"What?" Ron said.

"How?" Hermione said.

" I don't know! I mean, I can see that the text is covered in scribbles that I don't understand... but I can still understand. Wait, could Parceltongue have some kind of… written language too?" Harry asked.

"But how would that even work!?" Hermione said. " You can't just… be born with the ability to read some kind of language! You have to learn how to read and write!"

"I don't know! I managed to speak and understand the snake language just fine without learning about it beforehand. Maybe the same applies to it as a written language?"

"... I suppose we don't have any other explanation." Hermione huffed. " At the moment anyway."

"Can we focus on that later guys, right now we- well Harry- can level the playing field against Riddle! The bastard probably thinks he's the only person alive who has seen the information inside."Ron said.

Harry glanced over at the dozens of books. ' Well, there goes all of my free time.' Harry thought.

"Which also leaves us with another problem, what do we do with this information now?" Ron said. "Do we keep this to ourselves or do we tell someone else about our little discovery?"

"And by 'somebody' you mean…"

"Dumbledore." Ron confirmed.

"I don't think we should" Hermione said.

"Why?" Harry asked. He didn't disagree, just wanted to know her reasoning.

"Dumbledore is a master strategist. And him knowing what was in these books might make a difference in a hypothetical, future war against Voldemort."

"But..?"

"But, because we haven't gone through the books yet, we don't have any evidence that there is anything helpful written down. Not to mention that if we were to give Dumbledore these books he would know we came down into Slytherin Chamber and would correctly assume that the three of us are up to something much bigger than simply sneaking out at night.I don't even want to think about the implications that could bring."

" It's not worth losing everything we've accomplished so far." Ron said. " While I doubt he would do much himself , he would at the very least inform the staff that we need watched after. And possibly inform our families. Which would make our lives more difficult than it needs to be."

"Thanks for the feedback, and it seems we are unanimous. We keep this secret to ourselves, for the time being anyway." Harry said. He was thankful that he wasn't alone in not telling Dumbledore. While he respected the old wizard, that mean he had to trust him.

"We should head back to the dorms and try to get some sleep for the night. We can figure out our nest step later." Harry said.

And with that said, the three of them put all of Slytherin's books into Harry's expandable bag and started exiting the Chamber.

"Hopefully I'll be able to get through all of the books before January." Harry said.

"Don't strain yourself, Harry." Hermione said chidingly.

"Yeah," Ron agreed. " Don't bother with translating everything. Just write down anything worthwhile."

" Yeah, yeah , I know. " Harry said.

"Oh! Are we still doing morning exercises today?" Ron asked.

"For appearance sake, we should." Hermione said. " Everyone's used to us doing them, it would be weird if it appeared we suddenly stopped right before the other schools got here."

"True." Harry said. " No need to start up the Hogwarts rumor mill unnecessarily."

"Ugh," Ron groaned. "That means we'll only be getting around three hours of sleep."

"Said the boy who stayed up all night reading about ancient runes." Hermione teased.

"Hypocrite, like you don't do the exact same with Charms ." Ron defended.

Harry let Ron and Hermione continue to bicker, while he thought about what they managed to accomplish . They had managed to find books with invaluable information, well probably anyway. He learned that he can use Parselmagic, and now that he was thinking about it, Slytherin's Chamber would probably be a good place to train.

Maybe the three of them would be able to train down here while the other schools were here. Definitely the safest bet considering he was the only one able to get in. And with the map they should be able to get in and out undetected.

Whatever, he would worry about the details later. Right now, all he wanted was to get through the first week of this Tournament business without drawing too much attention to himself.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **First I would like to thank all of my followers for being patient during my absence and I hope you like this new chapter. It went through several rewrites and I'm finally satisfied with it and I hope you all liked it.**

 **But I'm more excited for the chapters yet to come. I have some fun ideas that I hope you'll like and i will try to post on a more frequent basis, but we will see how that goes.**

 **Thank you all for following me and leaving reviews. I really appreciate it.**

 **Until next time.**


End file.
